


Generals of Grimm Volume 2

by Punisher143



Series: Generals of Grimm [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Explicit Language, Grimm RWBY AU, Relationship Tags to Be Added - Freeform, Unhappy pasts for everyone!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:07:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 66,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27487021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Punisher143/pseuds/Punisher143
Summary: With the defeat of the Hierophant General of Grimm under their belts, Team STRQ is looking toward future battles with the dreaded Generals along with Roman Torchwick and the White Fang along with the upcoming Vytal Festival. And with it comes new responsibilities and new headaches, along with transfer students.Such as Team RWBY.
Series: Generals of Grimm [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1579060
Kudos: 5





	1. Volume 2 Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> V8 Hype! I can't wait!

Weiss did her best to control her breathing as she held her rapier in front of her. Even though Winter had long been unofficially blacklisted from the Schnee Manor, Weiss still remembered all the times that she had trained Weiss in fencing using summoned Beowolves. Even with her gone, Weiss still secretly kept the training up in her own time and whenever Winter snuck in to check on her.

Thrusts, foot placement, slashes, and proper usage of glyphs were all practiced several times, both individually and mixed together before Weiss decided that she had done enough. Today was no different, and Weiss moved to her bed to put Myrtenaster away in its case and hid it under her bed like always before she started to leave her room to get some lunch Weiss had barely cracked open her door when she heard her father shouting outside.

“This is an outrage! All this time you’ve said that she mustn’t leave the Manor grounds, and now you’ve changed your mind about that!? Why are you—“

“This conversation was over when it started, Gelé,” a familiar woman’s voice interrupted and Weiss froze when she heard it.

 _‘Oh no, it’s_ her!’

“But why _her_?” Jacques asked again, “Why _my_ daughter!? Surely you have plenty of other people to—“

“Of course I do, Gelé, but I’m choosing _her_ for this,” the monster said, stopping right in front of Weiss’ door. Weiss saw the barest amount of her dress and armored arms and started backing away from the door quietly. “And I find it interesting that you think you have a say in what she does.”

“She’s my daughter and heiress to my company! If anything were to happen to her, then—“

“ _Your_ company!?” she interrupted angrily. By this point Weiss had taken a deep breath and started to set up for singing practice, hoping the argument wouldn’t come into the room. “Oh Gelé, you parasite, I think you’ve forgotten how _little_ power you actually have now. You’ve had nothing since the day you revealed yourself for what you really are and Willow called on _me_ to make things right. And I will make things right again, with everything that I have.

“Now the real question you need to ask is this: do I have to break your _other_ arm for you to realize that?” Jacques didn’t answer aside from an angry sigh, to which she replied with a small huff. “That’s what I thought. Now make sure everything is in place and the account I specified is always topped off, if you can handle that.”

Weiss had just gotten her stand and sheet music set up and was about to start singing when her bedroom door opened and the clacking of heels filled the room. Weiss clasped her hands together to keep them from shaking and took another breath as she reread the sheet music. _Anything_ to keep from focusing on _Her_.

“Oh, you’re awake, little one,” she said no doubt smiling at how stiff Weiss was. “I apologize if our discussion interrupted your practice.”

“You’re not real,” Weiss muttered and turned the page of her sheet music. “You’ll go away if I ignore you like always.”

“It’s amazing how you keep using the same false logic,” She said with a chuckle, “but I think you’ll agree that I’m real once you hear what I say.”

Weiss sighed and shut the music sheet. “I can’t concentrate like this. I’ll get lunch and try this again,” Weiss started to leave her room while deliberately ignoring Her and Jacques who was standing in the doorway. Weiss briefly looked at Jacque’s broken arm, covered entirely in a cast and a sling, and deep down she enjoyed the fact that he suffered even a little. She still felt sick at the thought, so she pushed the feeling down and grabbed her door to close that thing out of her life again.

“How would you like to leave the manor grounds and forge your own future?” She asked, which stopped Weiss in her tracks as She continued. “Even better, a future without _me_.”

 _That_ certainly caught Weiss’s attention and she turned to actually see Her for the first time in a long time. She still looked exactly the same as the last time Weiss saw Her in the mirror: the same face as hers, same dress and armor, the same cold smile. “What do you mean?” Weiss asked, which caused Her smile to grow bigger.

“ _That_ caught your attention, I see. I’ve had a change of heart about you Weiss,” She said clasping her hands behind her and moving over to Weiss’ bed. “You could never have understood what I had planned for you, but… well, let’s just say things have changed and I no longer require you for what I want.”

“So… you’re letting me go?” Weiss asked.

“ _That_ remains to be seen,” She replied looking Weiss over with cold, red eyes before crouching down and pulling Myrtenaster’s case from under the bed. Weiss stiffened up a little as She set the case on the bed and opened it, taking the rapier out and looking it over. “So you still have this. I assume you’ve also been practicing as well?”

“Y-yes,” Weiss nodded as She started walking to her, “but what did you mean?”

“Despite what I said, you’re still my property, and I won’t let go of you so easily. You need to prove that you can survive without me. And like most things in life,” She paused to run her free hand over Myrtenaster’s blade, “A sword is by far one of the best ways to do so. Follow me. You as well, Gelé.” She walked past Weiss and Jacques out into the hallway, and Weiss hesitated for just a moment before she followed after her. She led her and Jacques through the manor, once again eerily empty save for one moment where Whitley happened across them and ran away once he saw Her. The monster laughed at that and continued walking until they emerged outside into one of the many courtyards that Weiss trained in with Winter.

Jacques shivered in the cold while Weiss and her monster walked unhindered, both used to the cold in their own ways. The monster stopped in the middle of the courtyard and turned to Weiss, holding the rapier out towards her, handle first. Weiss took the sword and watched as the monster backed up slowly, her red eyes boring into Weiss’ blue the whole way until she stopped.

“Now, you’ve done spars before I assume?” She asked, to which Weiss nodded in response. “Well then, you should know how this goes then. Your goal in this spar is simply to impress me, nothing more. And your opponent…” She held up her left hand and formed a red glyph that formed a sword handle. With one solid move she pulled the sword out of the glyph and swung a large black rapier in an arc to her side. “Will be me. I won’t harm you, but I won’t make this easy.”

Weiss nodded and held her sword up in the fencer’s show of respect, the monster doing the same, before both dropped it. She held her rapier up lightly while Weiss went through her usual routine. _‘Head up, shoulder’s back, left foot forward… control your breathing… and strike!’_

Weiss pulled her rapier close to her body, the Dust cylinder spinning and clicking into place before she charged at the monster, little more than a white blur to the untrained eye. Weiss found out that the monster was anything but untrained, as she barely had to move her sword to deflect Weiss’ thrust to the side. Weiss didn’t let the displaced momentum throw her off, spinning around with practiced grace and stabbed again. The monster jumped back to dodge the stab and rushed forward to attack Weiss, who managed to deflect three of the attacks before she had to lock blades. Weiss put all of her strength into both of her arms while the monster only had to use one and grinned as she snapped her fingers with her free hand..

Weiss found herself pushed backwards, and she settled into a ready stance just in time to see the monster flick her free hand up. Weiss recognized the motion and found herself launched into the air where she pulled her arms and legs in to control the spin. With a swipe of her rapier, Weiss formed a glyph to land on and formed four more around her that formed icicles that fired at her opponent. The monster smiled as she swatted away three of the icicles and caught the fourth one in a glyph that was spun around and fired back at Weiss.

Weiss backflipped, the icy projectile barely missing her, and formed another glyph that she crouched against. Myrtenaster’s cylinder spun and locked in on Fire Dust as Weiss pushed off the glyph and dove at her monster, who tilted her head with a look of curiosity. She spun out of the way and watched Weiss hit the ground blade first, smiling as she watched her flip over onto her feet and scraped the blade along the ground to create a wave of fire that was launched toward Her.

She held her blade up before swinging it down, launching a blade of wind that split the wave of fire and barely missed a charging Weiss. They clashed blades and the monster smiled that same sick smile Weiss had known for a while before Weiss was launched backwards. Weiss again flipped through the air onto her feet and held her rapier up in a thrust-ready position to find her monster creating more glyphs that surrounded both of them. Weiss eyes widened a little when she realized what She was doing and reacted in kind, Myrtenaster’s chamber spinning and locking into place again before Weiss started to create her own glyphs in between Hers.

Lastly they created a glyph behind themselves and jumped onto it, eyes locking in the instant before they both launched forward. Their blades scraped against each other mid-flight, their eyes never leaving the other's until they were past each other, and they both flipped to land feet first on another glyph to repeat the process. The glyphs disappeared as both fighters constantly clashed in the middle of the courtyard, each hit accompanied by a shower of sparks, until they finally stopped with Weiss on her last glyph platform in the air over her monster standing in the middle of the courtyard.

Weiss launched down onto the monster and locked blades again. She put all her strength into her sword arm and did her best to ignore the smile on Her face, focusing instead on Her sword arm. Once it was close enough, Weiss launched her _real_ attack and moved her free hand to Her monster’s body and created a glyph, the white glyph encompassing Her body before Weiss turned her hand to turn it black and lock Her arm in place. With that taken care of, Weiss moved her feet to kick off of Her sword and backflip onto a glyph where she aimed a thrust at the monster’s surprised face.

She launched and _finally_ managed to land her first real hit of the fight, even if She moved her face so Weiss would only hit her cheek. Still, she had drawn blood which Weiss was slightly proud of as she flew past Her and landed on the ground hand first to flip onto her feet. She had only barely stood up and taken a breath when the distinct cracking of ice being formed filled the courtyard and Weiss found her legs frozen up to her thighs. She turned to look back as best as she could to see Her, free from the glyph and sword planted blade first into the ground from which the ice had come from. She pulled the sword free and started to walk toward Weiss, a pit of fear forming in her stomach, heavy as any rock.

“Your technique could use some work,” She said, casually swinging her rapier in light circles as she walked, “and your awareness in combat is lacking. I left myself open several times during that fight that you could have taken advantage of, and you missed all but the last one. Very sloppy for a Schnee.” She stopped next to Weiss and turned to face her, Weiss’ eyes widened a little when she saw the black blood going down her cheek, though the wound itself seemed to be gone.

 _‘I didn’t think it would hit that deep,’_ Weiss thought as her monster wiped the blood away with her hand and looked at it before wiping it off on her dress.

“Still, you did hit me. And I would say you were planning quick enough on your feet to offset any inexperience.” She looked thoughtful for a moment before She nodded. “I suppose I’m suitably impressed.”

“Really?” Weiss asked, disbelief and hope alike in her voice.

“Really.” She nodded again and summoned a glyph to put her rapier away. Weiss herself locked Fire Dust into Myrtenaster and stabbed it into the ice that melted a few moments later with little harm to Weiss herself. When she was free, she sheathed Myrtenaster and watched as her monster took a scroll out from a pocket in her dress and held it up.

“This, little Weiss, is your new life,” she said and flicked the scroll open to show an ID screen with Weiss’ picture on it. “With this you can be a student Huntress of Haven Academy, team included. A new life full of freedom, all in one little scroll.” Weiss started to reach for the scroll when She closed it and held it away from her. “But I can’t give it to you for free.”

“Even after this duel?!” Weiss asked, outraged.

“The duel was for the _opportunity_ to have a new life,” She explained with a small smirk as she moved to hold the scroll with both hands and spun it between them by its corners. “If you really want this new life, you’ll have to do one small task for me.”

“I hate people like you, always moving the goalposts to suit your own needs,” Weiss said, glaring at Her and balling her hands into fists, “but I’ll do whatever it takes to get my freedom.”

“That’s _exactly_ what I want to hear,” She said, her smirk widening. “Huntresses are supposed to do the impossible after all. Not that I’d ask that of you of course.” She stopped spinning the scroll and held it out to Weiss. “All you have to do is go to Vale and help your team win the Vytal Tournament. That’s all.”

“Win… a tournament?” Weiss asked and took the scroll. She flicked it open to look over her student ID, all accurate. “But why do you-?”

“Do you want your freedom or not?”

“O-of course I do!” Weiss tried not to shiver from the barely hidden anger in Her voice.

“Then don’t question my motives or goals again. They shouldn’t matter to you anyway, only my deal. Win the tournament, win your freedom; simple as that.” She moved her hands behind her back to add, “The Schnees are supposed to be the finest of them all after all, so winning a simple tournament shouldn’t be a problem for you.”

“Right…” Weiss muttered as she closed the scroll and put it away in a dress pocket.

“One last thing I should mention,” She said holding a hand up in front of Weiss. “Your freedom is absolutely on the line here. As I’m sure you can guess, that means that if you lose… well, you’ll belong to me for the rest of your life.” Weiss shivered as She chuckled to herself and folded her hands behind her back again. “If anything, consider that extra motivation.”

“…I will.” Weiss nodded. “I won’t disappoint.”

“I hope not. You are a Schnee after all,” She said turning around and pointing at the manor, “Go pack what you think you’ll need and go to the eastern landing pad. The airship there will take you to Vale. You’ll also be picking up one of your teammates along the way, so look presentable.” She started to walk away when something hit her from behind and she felt arms wrap around her stomach.

“Thank you for this chance. I will prove myself to you,” Weiss said and released her monster to run back into the manor to pack her things, barely paying attention to Jacques as he watched her run. Nor did she see her monster brush her dress off and smile after her.

“I very much expect that, Little Weiss.”

* * *

Blake was waking up from a thankfully dreamless sleep. Like every other time she’s done this in the wild she focused her hearing carefully while she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She heard a bird singing somewhere far off, not unusual in this part of Mistral, the air wasn’t too humid, the fire was going and she heard sizzling meat cooling over it. Then there was-

 _‘Wait, the fire should have died out by now,’_ Blake realized and shot her eyes open now fully awake. She saw that the fire was indeed roaring again, with several sticks with fish on them cooking over it, and _it_ was there on the other side. Blake glared at the Demon, who was sitting cross legged watching the fish cook, and drew Gambol Shroud from its sheath, the blade folding up so it rested against the handgun, and held it up ready to stab it into her arm. “Get-!”

A tentacle shot out and wrapped around Blake’s arm, holding it still so she wouldn’t be able to stab herself. Blake froze with a gasp and looked at the tentacle holding her arm and then at the Demon itself who was looking up at her.

“I’m not in your head, not this time,” it said before withdrawing its tentacle and going back to watching the fish. “Normally I would, but after the week I’ve had I don’t have the patience to speak with you like that. _This_ is easier.” Blake blinked at the Demon and squinted at it before slowly getting to her feet, keeping Gambol Shroud leveled at it as she moved around the fire. The Demon watched Blake as she carefully edged her way closer until she was right next to it and poked its head with the barrel of the gun. “Stop that.”

Blake jumped back in shock and outstretch her arms as she kept aiming. “What is this!? Why are you actually here?!” Blake demanded gesturing with her pistol, “What are you planning?”

“I’m planning to eat some fish, nothing more. As I’ve already said, I don’t have the patience lately to taunt you how I normally would.”

“And what is that supposed to mean? You never-“

“Have you ever had the top half of your body obliterated by a laser?” The Demon asked angrily and turned to look at Blake. After a few moments of silence from the Faunus as she stared in confusion, the Demon huffed and added, “Exactly, it’s not fun. Now shut up and eat some fish.” The Demon looked away from Blake and picked up one of the sticks with a fish on it, removing its mask to eat. Blake watched it eat, pointed teeth tearing into fish meat messily, before she carefully moved to the other side of the fire pit and sat down, her gun still trained on it as she grabbed a stick as well.

Blake carefully ripped some of the scales off the fish with her teeth and took a small bite from it, though she was more concerned with watching the Demon tear into its own fish with no care for scales nor bone. Blake couldn’t hide her curiosity at seeing the Demon’s mouth for the first time, particularly how it was wide enough to split both of its cheeks. She chewed a bit of meat before swallowing and lowering her fish to ask, “So why are you here? You’re never courteous and everything you do always is for something. So what is it this time? Another plan involving me?”

“Plans,” The Demon said and ate the rest of its fish whole, scraping its teeth along the wood to pull it off into its mouth and tossed the stick into the fire. “You speak of ‘plans’ as if you know what your place in any of it is. So I ask you this: what do you think your place in my ‘plans’ are?”

“You were going to turn me into a Herald, maybe use my… I don’t know, relationship with Adam to push him higher up the ranks of the White Fang,” Blake said and took another bite of fish, letting the strip hang in her teeth as she added, “Too bad about that, huh?” before moving it into her mouth.

“Skilled as he is, Taurus is just a sword to me. He could just as easily be replaced by any warrior or assassin of similar skill. As for the Heralds, they can go on about how much power they have, but we both know that they’re nothing more than puppets for me to extend my reach through the world.” The Demon smiled at her, it’s cheeks splitting open as it did so, and added, “Such a fate is _far_ too low for you Belladonna, my most precious doll.”

“I’ll never let you use me,” Blake said and leveled Gambol Shroud at the Demon’s head, her trigger finger squeezing the trigger as much as she could without actually firing.

“That stubbornness is why we’re having this conversation,” The Demon returned and plucked another fish from the fire and bit into it. “Despite all the benefits you have from our… relationship, you choose to fight me at every turn. And to be honest, I’m growing tired of it.”

“So what, you’re going to force me into the role? I have a way out of that you know.”

“Quite the opposite, I’m letting you go.” Blake blinked at that before scowling and gripping Gambol Shroud tighter, her knuckles going white from the force.

“Letting me go? And I’m supposed to believe you on that, after everything you’ve done to me!?” Blake asked angrily as the Demon ate the fish and swallowed it whole.

“Of course not, you’re not naïve. All I’m going to do is lay out a deal with my terms. Whether you accept it or not is up to you.”

Blake watched as the Demon took another fish to eat and, against every fiber of her being saying otherwise, actually thought it over. This Demon that she lived with her whole life was actually offering her a way out of all of this. It sounded too good to be true which, given who this was, meant it most likely was.

 _‘I suppose there’s no harm to hearing her out. I can always say no,’_ Blake thought and asked, “Why, and what’s the catch?”

“Interested? It’s as you said, there are plenty of Heralds to take your place if I needed to,” the Demon said finishing the fish and throwing the stick away. “As for the ‘catch’, it’s really nothing of the sort. I need you to do a small task to prove that you can survive without my influence.”

“I don’t believe you,” Blake said shaking her head, “I’ve seen this game before; it’s always ‘one more job’ over and over again to keep you locked into one place. Adam tried that with me and it didn’t work with him, so why should it work with you?”

“Because unlike Taurus I can back up what I promise, and when I say ‘one task’ I mean it.” The Demon reached a tentacle into its kimono, pulled out a scroll, and reached over the fire to place it on the ground in front of Blake. Blake slowly picked up the scroll, keeping both her eyes and her pistol on the Demon, and flicked it open to see an ID with her picture and name.

“A student ID for Haven Academy? What are you doing with something like this?”

“That is your reward for completing the task,” the Demon said gesturing lightly at the scroll with a tentacle, “A new life as a student of a Huntsman Academy along with a clean background.”

“The ID is fake then.”

“Of course it’s fake, do you think someone like you would have any chance at getting a real one? I can guarantee that will pass any inspection it goes through.” The Demon paused to put on her mask and made sure it fit snugly before adding, “Besides you’ll need the scroll anyway, especially after throwing away your last one.”

It had been a long time since Blake had thought about that. Throwing away her scroll was yet another action taken in her paranoia that, in hindsight, was probably unnecessary. She didn’t know if the White Fang could track her through her scroll, but at the point she was at she also didn’t care. Blake had wanted a clean life and a clean start, detached from anything remotely connected to her old life.

A shame she couldn’t throw away her memories, or that one picture of her parents that she still had.

“And if I do take this, and that’s a big _if_ mind you, what exactly would I have to do in exchange? I’m not going to kill anyone.”

“Convenient, because if you were to do that it would make your task harder.” The Demon pushed itself up to its feet, Blake following suit, and crossed its tentacles. “The Vytal Festival is about to start in the Kingdom of Vale and your new team is waiting for you there. Your task is to win the Vytal Tournament with that team, nothing more. Once you’ve completed that you’ll be free to live your life as you see fit.”

“And if I fail I assume that I’ll still be stuck in your thrall and probably even worse off than I am now,” Blake said narrowing her eyes at the Demon.

“Naturally. There’s nothing worthwhile in life that doesn’t come with a few risks, don’t you agree?” Blake didn’t answer and the Demon uncrossed its tentacles and added, “but you’ll want proof that there is weight to my deal other than my words before you’ll accept it.”

“You’ll need a lot of weight.” The Demon rubbed its chin for a moment before walking around the fire until it was right in front of Blake, uncaring of the pistol still aimed at it.

“I have just the thing. Give me your hands.” Blake didn’t move at all as the Demon extended both of its tentacles towards her, stopping inches away and both of them staring into the others eyes. Soon Blake dropped the scroll and held out her now free hand out.

“You get one.” The Demon didn’t respond, instead moving its tentacles to Blake’s hand and stabbing the tips into her wrist and forearm. Blake’s arm immediately started burning like several branding irons were pressed onto her skin and Blake screamed loudly in pain while collapsing to her knees. The burning spread through her whole body for a brief moment before it all faded away and the Demon pulled its tentacles away from her.

With her arm free and the pain fading away Blake aimed at the Demon again, only to be taken aback when she saw it holding a small ball of blood in between its tentacles. She watched the ball, mostly black with a few swirls of red mixed in, as the Demon moved to inspect it before crushing it.

“What was…?” Blake started to ask as she watched the Demon’s arms pulsate as it absorbed the blood.

“Blood has power,” the Demon interrupted gesturing to Blake and itself, “especially between you and I. The stronger the blood, the stronger the connection, but you already know this.” Blake scowled at the Demon, her thoughts flicking briefly to the Heralds. “What I just took is the majority of my influence over you. There’s still some left, enough for me to see through your eyes and ultimately know if you’ll go through with this deal, but nothing more. No more visions of me, no more spasms from me trying to control your body. If you want me to rid you of the rest, then simply follow through with my deal.”

The Demon started to walk away from Blake, who still hadn’t lowered her gun as she stared at it, until she lowered it and shouted, “And how do I know you’re telling the truth? You’ve always said anything to get what you wanted before!”

“The deal is real Belladonna, as is the reward,” the Demon returned as it stopped and glanced back at Blake, “and you won’t get another chance like this again, _that_ I can guarantee. The scroll has coordinates and a date. If you want to take the deal, be there by then.” It looked away from Blake and continued walking until it disappeared behind a grouping of trees a ways away. Blake finally started to relax and took a breath to steady her nerves and looked down at the scroll lying at her feet.

She picked up the scroll and looked everything over again, trying not to meet the gaze of her picture, and shut it when she was done. “It’s too good to be true,” she said to herself as she put it away in one of her pockets and sat down next to the fire. “It’s just another trick for it to get into my head, make me do things against my will. I can’t trust it.”

Still, as she took another fish out of the fire and started eating around the blackened bits of meat, Blake thought about the ‘deal’.

* * *

The date on the scroll had been for five days after Blake’s meeting with the Demon and the location was a village a couple of days away by foot, though with her speed she could have been there in half the time if she wanted. Blake had tried to push the meeting out of her mind and continue her life as she had been, scavenging in the wilderness for food while avoiding the Creatures of Grimm, before setting up camp and awaiting the latest bit of horror to invade her dreams.

But it didn’t come. Blake had a dreamless sleep and woke up in the morning feeling more refreshed than she usually did. Even her bandaged arms, which would usually ache as a sign of the Demon’s attempt of control, felt just fine. Blake didn’t know how to feel about that, nor when it happened again the next morning.

The third time it happened a poisonous feeling that Blake had long ago tried to push away filled her again. She sat next to her dead campfire, a few embers still alive in the core of the pit, and she _really_ started to think about the deal the Demon had offered. Her freedom, her very life, in exchange for winning a tournament? It seemed too good to be true, and somewhere deep down she believed that, but she was starting to enjoy having her head to herself for a change.

 _“Your life could be so much better than this,”_ Blake remembered the Demon saying once long ago, _“This is no life for you.”_ As much as Blake hated the Demon she knew that it was right. Her experiences with it caused her to run away _again_ and scrape out a meager existence because she didn’t want to hurt anyone again. That was exactly the kind of thing that demons like Kuroshara fed on and wanted.

“Nothing to lose, everything to gain huh?” Blake asked herself for the umpteenth time and opened the scroll the Demon gave her again. She looked over the ID and her picture (how the Demon got that is anyone’s guess) and sighed as she closed it again. “Fine, what else can I do except what I’ve been doing? Nothing changes that way, so let’s see how this goes.”

For the first time in a long time, Blake dared to hope.

It had been a hard dash to the village the scroll indicated, but Blake managed to make the trip in the two days left before the deadline. She was sure she was a sight to see for the villagers, hooded as she was and in black and white combat clothing that definitely had seen better days, but Blake was used to ignoring those kinds of stares when the happened. Blake checked the scroll again and was annoyed that it didn’t say anything more than ‘airport’ for a location to go, but she went all the same.

The airport in this village was no different from any other village large enough to warrant one: a hub building next to the ports for ticket purchases that included a side room full of cots that could be called an inn if one were feeling particularly generous. Blake looked the building over with crossed arms, wondering what to do now, and sighed inwardly as she entered the building. She stood at the doorway and looked over the ticket counter that had a couple of people working it, one of whom saw Blake and waved her over.

“I can help you here!” she said in the normal ‘pleasant’ tone that all who worked customer service must have learned. Blake walked over to her and waited a moment for her to finish typing something on her computer before she turned to Blake with the usual, half-forced smile. “How can I help you?”

“Um… I want to take a ship to Vale,” Blake answered still slightly unsure of herself.

“For the Vytal Festival, right?” she asked as she started typing on her computer again. “If that’s the case you’re in luck, all tickets to Vale are at a discount thanks to the Festival. It will cost you this much.” She tapped a hologram that brought up a price that Blake balked at.

 _‘15,000 Lien!? Is that one way or a round trip? I don’t have that kind of money on me!’_ Blake thought and, in a slight panic, asked, “Uh, can you… put me on a waiting list or something? I don’t quite have that much right now but I can soon.”

“That’s no problem, it happens more often than you would think. Just hold your scroll up please,” she replied dismissing the price and bringing up a new hologram that showed a dotted rectangle and the words ‘place scroll here’. Blake took out her new scroll and held it to the hologram until it beeped twice, then waited as the worker started typing again to see if she would be found out.

_‘I hope that Demon was right.’_

“And done! As soon as you have the money for the ticket, a seat will be waiting for you,” she said and nodded at Blake, “until then, have a nice day Ms. Belladonna.”

“Y-yeah,” Blake and returned the receptionists wave as she walked away from the counter. She looked at her scroll again and took a deep breath as she put it away. _‘Well that’s one problem taken care of, but now I have to worry about fundraising. I_ might _be able to pass as a legitimate Huntress now, so maybe getting money will be easier?’_ Blake left the building and sighed as she rubbed her eyes, looking around the village once she was done. _‘I might be here a while, so I better see what’s around.’_

A few minutes searching turned up a book store, a teahouse, and a relatively cheap inn if she decided to stay there instead of at the airport’s bunks. Still trying to formulate a plan Blake decided to window shop in the book store, which was immediately sunk when she saw a new copy of ‘The Man with Two Souls’. 2000 Lien was gone in an instant, but at least Blake could continue where she had left off so long ago.

Book in hand she next went to the teahouse where she ordered some tea, not caring what kind came to her, and sat down at a table outside to read. Blake had forgotten how nice it was to simply read a book by herself and soon found herself completely engrossed in her literature to the point where she barely acknowledged the waitress bringing her tea to her. Time passed both slowly and quickly as Blake read and occasionally drank her tea until something came along that could knock her out of her reverie.

Atlesian airships tend to do that. Blake, along with several villagers, watched as the clean looking airship landed on one of the nearby pads. A ramp came down from the ship and a side door opened up to let a man in a cleanly pressed business suit descend and make his way into the building. Blake watched him, but ended up shrugging it off and returning to her book. Whatever he was doing in a small village like this wasn’t any of her business.

That’s when her scroll started ringing, startling Blake a little before she pulled it out and flicked it open. She didn’t recognize the number and the icon was a generic gray silhouette, but the call coming right after that airship come here was too much of a coincidence for Blake. So, against her better judgement, she answered the call.

“Hello?”

_“Blake Belladonna?”_

“Who is this?” Blake asked as she shut and put down her book. No one should know her name, but if it did get out and is connected to that train… she didn’t want to think about it.

 _“Are you Blake Belladonna or not?”_ The man was doing his best to act professional, but Blake had been around ‘professionals’ enough to know how to read between the words. He was getting impatient.

 _‘Still, the fact he knows my name… let’s see how this goes.’_ “Yes, I’m Blake. Now who are you?”

_“My name is Laurel Schwarz. I work for the Schnee Dust Company.”_

“What?” Blake couldn’t help but ask. A thousand possibilities for a SDC worker calling her coursed through her mind, but she waited for a proper explanation.

 _“I was ordered to pick you up in this village. I would ask that you hurry to the airship port, we don’t have much time before refueling is finished.”_ The man in the business suit left the main airport building talking on his scroll and Blake narrowed her eyes at him.

“Did you just walk out of the ticket building?” she asked and watched as the man stopped suddenly and looked around.

_“You’re close?”_

“Raise your left arm.” The man did so and Blake quirked an eyebrow. _‘Now that’s interesting. Did the Demon arrange for this too?’_ “I’ll be right over.”

 _“Hey, wait-!”_ Laurel started to say when Blake shut her scroll and put it away. She stood up, finished what was left of her tea, and left a tip of all the Lien coins she had before walking to the man with her book in hand. She saw the man she was sure was Laurel look at his scroll before putting it away and rubbing his neck as she approached, which he definitely noticed when she was only a few feet away.

“Blake Belladonna?” he asked once Blake had stopped next to him. She nodded in response and watched him take her in. When he was done he carefully fiddled with one of his cufflinks and comment, “I guess Huntresses come in all shapes. None of my business though. Follow me.”

“Before I do that I have to ask, how did you know I’d be here?” Blake asked. Laurel stopped short and stared at her for a moment before shrugging.

“You’re asking the wrong man for that. I was told to escort you to Vale, so that’s what I’m doing. Any reason why is beyond what I’m paid to care about.” With that less than satisfactory answer he motioned to the airship again. Blake rolled her eyes but followed him all the same.

Even though Blake had reservations about Atlas and the Schnee Dust Company in particular, she didn’t bother to hide the small wonder as she looked over the Atlesian airship she was going to be taking, to say nothing about the interior. It had a standard red patterned carpet that went well with the white interior walls and black seats. There weren’t that many seats, or people to sit in them for that matter, so Blake came to the obvious conclusion that this was a private airship.

 _‘A private SDC airship to pick me up? The further I go into this, the worse it stinks,’_ Blake thought to herself rubbing her chin. _‘Still it’s too late to back out now, especially since I’ve already introduced myself. I guess I’m along for this ride.’_

“Are you listening?” Laurel asked slightly annoyed.

“…Sorry, I was lost in thought. You were saying?” _‘I should probably pay more attention for now.’_

“As I said, feel free to sit anywhere you like. Food and drink will be brought by attendants regularly, so don’t worry about seeking it out. It’s a long flight to Vale, so get your rest when you can.”

Blake nodded and watched Laurel walk down the aisle to the back of the airship. Blake followed him, walking carefully to make it seem like she was looking for a seat while watching him. He stopped at a seat almost at the furthest back and started to talk to someone. Blake managed to pick up bits of the conversation, small things like ‘found her’ and ‘we’ll leave when we refueled’ followed by a simple ‘thank you’ from a female voice.

 _That_ definitely caught Blake’s attention. She continued her walk down the aisle, moving aside for the brief moment to let Laurel pass by her as he went to the front of the ship, and stopped when she caught sight of the girl.

She was sitting neat and proper, like anyone who had training in etiquette would sit, and stared out the window with barely concealed amazement. Blake looked her over, from her hair as white as snow done up in a side ponytail with a metal tiara-like band, her fair face only blemished by a scar over her left eye, down to her clothing and boots. They were all white, save her jacket having a red inline, and her dress (most likely custom made) fit her nicely. She was tapping her foot impatiently and leaned a little closer to the window, which was when Blake saw the Schnee snowflake on the back of her jacket.

That, plus the myriad of luggage with the same snowflake, gave Blake everything she needed to know who this girl was.

 _‘There’s no way…’_ Blake thought as the girl turned to her and jumped a little when she finally saw her.

“Oh, I apologize. I didn’t hear you come over,” she said putting a hand up to her chest and bowing slightly, “You must be my teammate we were picking up, I assume?”

“…So it would seem,” Blake answered, her defensive nature taking over.

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m-“

“Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company; the largest purveyor of energy propellent in the world,” Blake said focusing on the girl’s face. No doubt about it, it was _definitely_ Weiss Schnee sitting in front of her. That did nothing to dissuade Blake’s ill feeling about being here in the slightest.

“Oh, you’ve heard about me then?” Weiss said after a second of quiet blinking.

“The same company known for its controversial labor force and shady business practices.” Blake watched Weiss’ face as surprise took over it. Blake was sure that she would lash out in defense of her company, but was surprised for another time when she instead sighed sadly and looked outside again.

“I’m sorry if you were hurt by the Schnee Dust Company, but I have nothing to do with any of that,” she said and smoothed skirt out, “That’s all my father’s doing. I have my own problems.”

Blake raised an eyebrow at the answer and sighed soft enough that Weiss didn’t hear it. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming you. I just… call it as I see it I guess.” Weiss nodded after a second, which gave Blake a small measure of relief, and she gestured to a seat across from her. Despite her reservations to sit on her own and read her book, Blake took the offered seat and started reading there.

 _‘I have to make a better effort to be friendly. If she’s right about us being on a team, then we’re going to be seeing each other a lot.’_ Blake looked over the edge of her book at Weiss and squinted her eyes a little. _‘Still, the shut-away heiress to the SDC is on my team? Just what is going on?’_

 _“We’re finished refueling,”_ a female voice said over the intercom, the pilot Blake figured, _“So we’ll be taking off shortly.”_

“I wish I could have gone out to see the village before we left,” Weiss said mostly to herself as she shifted in her seat, “Maybe some other time.” Not long after that the engines fired up and Blake turned away from her book long enough to look out the window as the airship lifted off. The village was soon a dot on the landscape and sky was all that could be seen outside, so Blake returned to her book for about a second when Weiss asked something.

“What is your name?”

“What?” Blake asked looking up from her book.

“Your name. You already know mine, of course, but I don’t know yours. I should at least know that right?”

Blake did her best to resist rolling her eyes and went back to her book as she answered, “Blake.”

“Blake…” Weiss repeated with a nod, “Do you like reading Blake?”

“Yes, I do. So much so that I want to continue doing it… for the rest of this flight… quietly.” _‘Please get the hint?’_

“I don’t think I read that in the library at the manor. What’s it about?”

“…It’s a story about a man with two souls, each one fighting for control over his body.” Blake tried to keep her literary choices separate from what happened in her life, but the first time she saw this book it resonated with her. It was probably the first time she really could step into the protagonist’s shoes but really wish she couldn’t.

“That must be rough, having to constantly fight for your right to exist,” Weiss said sorrowfully and looked out the window, “if there’s a ‘good’ soul, then I hope that’s the one that wins.”

Blake looked at Weiss in surprise in that she mirrored Blake’s exact train of thought when she had first picked up the book. _‘It’s almost like she has experience in… nah, that can’t be._ ’

Weiss noticed Blake staring at her and asked, “Is that weird to say?”

“No, not in the slightest,” Blake answered hastily shaking her head.

“Ok, I thought I said something wrong. If you don’t mind, can I read that when you’re done?” Blake nodded and Weiss gave the smallest of smiles. Curiosity now thoroughly peaked, Blake reached into a pocket and took out a length of ribbon, a spare in case she lost the one she used to hide her cat ears, and used it to mark her place in the book before she set it aside.

“You said you had a library at your manor. Did you read a lot there?” Blake asked although she kept her question of ‘why would you leave the manor’ unasked.

“Not as much as I would have liked,” Weiss said with a small shrug, “it was mostly used for private lessons. Business, economics, the history of my family and company, that kind of thing. Mother and Father aren’t readers so much, that was more my grandfather’s thing.”

Blake only knew a little about Nicholas Schnee, the founder of the Schnee Dust Company, but what she had heard painted him as a driven yet humble man. Who else would personally lead expeditions to find new Dust deposits other than that? _‘Yeah, I can see someone like that being an avid reader,’_ Blake mentally agreed as she watched Weiss look up and down the aisle before leaning in closer.

“But I do know where my sister hid a bunch of young adult novels in the library. I read all of those, especially the raunchier ones. Good afternoons wasted if you’re into that kind of thing.”

“…Which ones?” Blake asked more than a little excited to share in one of her guiltier pleasures, even more so when Weiss grinned just as widely as Blake was.

 _‘Maybe it won’t be as bad as I thought,’_ Blake thought, _‘Knock on wood of course.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The update schedule going forward will me 'main' chapters like this on Fridays and 'Intermission' chapters on Wednesday if they're scheduled there. See you next time!


	2. The new semester part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ended up being too long for me to comfortably post as one chapter. Part 2 will be tomorrow.
> 
> I've also been getting help ironing out grammar issues that I just never noticed on my own before. My memory isn't the best when it comes to who helped me with what, but I do appreciate that help.

The Kingdom of Vale was starting to get more than a little busy lately, what with the Vytal Festival coming in just a couple of months. Businesses were busy preparing for the influx of tourists from the other Kingdoms, the airship ports were working overtime to deal with the numerous ships going in and out, and an air of joviality filled the city streets.

At one of the ports a cruiser airship landed and opened its offloading ramp to let the passengers off. Most were from Mistral, a bit less called Atlas home, but two in particular came from _a bit_ farther away. They, along with about 20 some odd people, got onto a transport bus that took them from the terminal into Vale proper and got off on the first stop once they were in the city.

The younger of the two jumped off the bus onto the sidewalk and looked up at a nearby building with a small amount of awe in her red eyes. A bit of wind blew her hair, black in color ending in red tips, along with her red cape and black combat dress belted down in the right places. She smiled toothily as she tapped one of her black combat boots against the pavement, more than ready to see the city.

She probably would have drawn more than a few stares if not for her companion, whose long blonde hair would draw a gaze no matter where she was. Not that the rest of her wasn’t as eye catching, with bright lilac eyes to compliment her hair, a short leather jacket with a yellow undershirt that were both short enough to expose just enough of her midriff, black shorts and a leather half-skirt, and leather boots to complete the outfit. All in all it seemed deliberately coordinated to be functional and distracting, which seemed to work since she saw two guys ogling her out of the corner of her eye before turning away when they saw her looking at them.

The blonde chuckled to herself as she turned to her companion and asked, “If only they knew, huh Ruby?”

Ruby looked back, catching the looks some of the guys and girls were giving her companion, and rolled her eyes in response. “Yeah, sure Yang. Now come on, I want to look around before we have to get to work.” Yang chuckled a little but followed Ruby regardless as she started walking through the streets. As they walked, dodging pedestrians and staring into shop windows along the way, Ruby couldn’t help but marvel at how _different_ the city was from the last time she had been here. _‘It’s quite different from that view on Griffon back would have said.’_

“You’re really playing the ‘wide-eyed tourist’ to a T Ruby,” Yang commented cheerfully, which earned a glare from Ruby that quickly turned to curiosity when Yang started pulling on her fingerless gloves to adjust them.

“Why are you doing that?”

“Huh?” Yang wondered before she saw what she was doing and stopped, rubbing the back of her head with a small laugh. “Sorry, force of habit. When you use this Glamour a lot, habits like playing with clothing become second nature. You should try it more often Ruby, you can’t even get your eyes fully done.”

“I never had that fine a control over Glamour like you do Yang,” Ruby shrugged and pulled out a scroll, opening it to once again make sure all the information was correct on it for her to pass as a Student of Haven Academy. “I’m not too worried in any case, I saw a girl with hot pink eyes on the flight over. I should be fine.”

“True enough. So what’s on the agenda for today?”

“We need to find Cinder to let her know about the change in plans,” Ruby answered and stopped at an intersection while Yang hit the crossing button. “After that, we’ll need to figure out weapons. It’s a little weird for Huntresses to not have weapons.”

“Fair enough, I’m still a little annoyed I couldn’t bring my shotgun with me. I’ll have to figure something else out.” The walking signal turned on and Yang tapped Ruby on the shoulder as she started walking along. Once they were clear of the street Yang asked, “And what about our ‘teammates’? You think they’ll be here?”

“Weiss and Blake never failed us on that before,” Ruby answered and put away her scroll, “so I wouldn’t worry too much. We may have to come up with an excuse for why they aren’t here, but that shouldn’t be too hard.”

“We can just say we had staggered arrival times, it seems to be fairly common for exchange students here.” The pair started turning a corner when Yang smirked and crossed her arms behind her head, “You know, I’ve never actually seen the ‘dolls’ before, so I can’t help but be excited to see what they’re like.”

“I think we know _exactly_ what they’ll look like, so I wouldn’t worry too-“ Ruby stopped short as she and Yang saw a police cordon up ahead. They glanced at each other and ran to see what was going on, same as everyone else in the crowd.

“Everybody stand back, this is a crime scene!” A detective with a beard and sunglasses shouted while waving his arms widely, “Let everybody do their jobs ok?”

“What happened?” Yang asked no one in particular, though a middle-aged housewife with a tacky purse heard and answered.

“The owner of that store was murdered,” she whispered to Yang.

“Murdered?” Ruby asked and tried to look past the crowd at the store.

“Oh yes, I heard a boy went in to buy a comic book and found the body lying in the middle of the store! The police took the body away and Mrs. O’Grady said that he was missing most of his head from what she could see through the sheet.” The housewife shook her head and added, “Such a tragedy, especially with the Vytal Festival right around the corner.” She then left the crowd just as Ruby stopped jumping and glared at the crowd.

“Grr, I can’t see the store with these people in the way!” Ruby complained and looked at Yang, giving the taller girl a silent order. Yang nodded and started pushing through the crowd, disappearing in the throng of people and coming back a short while later.

“Tukson’s Book Trade,” Yang said once she come back and crossed her arms with a thoughtful expression. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Blake talking about someone with that name a while ago?”

“You’ve gotta be… come on,” Ruby turned and started walking away from the crowd with Yang in tow. Once they were far enough away Ruby said, “And you’re right, that’s the same guy. And Blake gave Cinder’s man here the task to ‘take care’ of him.” Ruby rubbed her chin in thought and turned to Yang, who was grinning widely as her eyes turned a bright red.

“Are we doing what I think we are?” she asked.

“Yes. Let’s find this ‘Torchwick’ and ask him why he did such a sloppy job.”

“Oh ho ho, I can’t wait to see the heads roll,” Yang said while cracking her knuckles.

“They will if they have to,” Ruby agreed. She was suddenly cast in shadow and when she looked up she saw a small fleet of airships fly overhead blocking out the sun briefly.

“Atlas? What are they doing here?” Yang asked, flicking her hair.

“I guess someone decided to come a bit early,” Ruby answered biting her thumb slightly, “things are going to get interesting.”

* * *

The Atlesian fleet flew toward Beacon Academy and took up position in the air around it, the larger ones taking defensive positions around the school while the smaller ones moved to the landing pads to deposit their passengers. Most of the students and faculty who saw it gaped in awe at the sudden arrival of the fleet. Two people in particular atop Beacon Tower had very different reactions.

“Ironwood certainly knows how to bring his work with him,” Glynda commented with no small amount of annoyance.

“Well being a general and the head of an academy means he has quite a bit of work,” Ozpin replied as he looked at one of the larger battleships, “those are a bit of an eyesore though.”

“And knowing him, he’ll make his way here as soon as he can.” Glynda’s words were proven true not even a second later when a hologram indicating a permission request popped up on Ozpin’s desk.

“Come in,” Ozpin called as he moved around his desk. One of the elevator doors opened to reveal a clean shaven middle aged man that gave off the aura of a lifelong military man, from his cleanly pressed white military suit and straight back demeanor. Ozpin returned the demeanor as General Ironwood walked in and grinned.

“Ozpin,” he said while opening his arms in a friendly gesture.

“General,” Ozpin returned professionally.

“Oh come now, let’s drop the formalities. We’ve known each other long enough.” Ozpin did just that and relaxed his stance to shake his old friend’s hand while Glynda walked up next to them. “Glynda, you’re looking as lovely as always.”

“Thank you,” Glynda replied with the smallest of eye rolls, “I’ll be outside.” She walked past both men and into one of the elevators, leaving the two of them to talk without her.

“Well she hasn’t changed,” Ironwood said good naturedly as Ozpin walked to his desk and the pot on top of it. “Oh none for me, I’m still a little lagged from the flight.”

“It’s not coffee,” Ozpin clarified as he poured a cup and held it out to Ironwood. He took the cup and gave it a quick sniff as Ozpin walked around his desk with the pot and another mug. "If there’s one thing I look forward to after the first semester, it’s a return to normality, in a manner of speaking.”

“Well when you put it like that, I guess I can have one cup,” Ironwood said with a shrug as Ozpin sat down and poured himself a cup.

“So what brings the headmaster of Atlas Academy all the way to Vale? It’s unusual for Headmasters to travel with their students after all,” Ozpin said and looked up at Ironwood as he took a sip and scrunched his face up slightly.

“Well you know I like Vale at this time of year,” Ironwood answered as he took out a small flask from his coat and poured a little of its contents into his cup. Ozpin always made his hot chocolate too sweet for Ironwood’s taste and something, _anything_ , bitter helped it go down a little better. “And I thought it would be nice to catch up.”

“While I agree with you on that, I hardly see how bringing a small fleet is necessary for that.”

“Ozpin, you know why I brought those men,” Ironwood commented grimly and put the flask away.

Indeed Ozpin did, if the way he sighed and carefully set his mug down meant anything. Ironwood probably rushed over with the fleet as soon as he got Ozpin’s report about recent happenings. While Ozpin didn’t agree with the methods his Atlesian counterpart used, he did know his heart was in the right place and that protecting the people of the kingdoms would always be a priority.

“We’re living in a time of peace,” Ozpin finally said and turned his chair slightly to gesture at Ironwood’s airships, “military displays such as that just give the wrong impression.”

“But if what STRQ said is true---”

“If what they reported is true, it will need to be handled tactfully,” Ozpin countered and clasped his hands together while leaning forward on his elbows. “We have to remember the Vytal Festival is right around the corner. Tensions will already be higher than normal and any one bit of information slipping out will cause an unnecessary panic.” Ironwood took a drink from his mug, savoring the taste for a moment before replying.

“And what about the Generals? You didn’t say anything about Death showing up at your doorstep at the beginning of the year, so why say anything now?”

“Small sightings of the Generals happen all the time. You should know that better than most with your war against Moon.”

Ironwood scrunched his face in disgust at that. When he first found out about the Generals of Grimm from Ozpin and the Moon General in particular, he spared as much resources as he could to try and rid Atlas of its biggest pest. It helped that a number of the cults that sprang around it were actively disruptive so he didn’t have to worry about council approval even without his two seats, but the more organized ones and the Grimm they were centered around were more slippery than Ironwood liked.

“I will get it soon,” Ironwood said as much anger in his voice as there was determination.

“And I hope you do, truly,” Ozpin said with a nod, “ridding the world of the Moon General will help our odds immeasurably, though I don’t need to tell you that.” Ozpin picked up his mug and took a drink from it before holding it with both his hands. “As for my silence on Death’s appearance, that has to do with the fact that it was actively scouting out the school. Whether any of them were still doing it or not, I wanted to play my hand close to my chest. I just wish my suspicions weren’t confirmed by the Hierophant appearing so close as well.”

“And you’re sure it was the Hierophant?” Ironwood asked. Ozpin replied by taking out his scroll, placing it on his desk, and with a touch brought up a picture that nearly caused Ironwood to drop his mug. Of course seeing a clear picture of any of the Generals was a rarity, impossible even, but actually seeing the Hierophant with two members of the White Fang certainly was a sight.

“I’m positive.”

“My god!” Ironwood moved closer to the picture and set his mug down to lean against the desk as he took in every detail with wide eyes. “Who took this?”

“Velvet Scarlatina of Team CFVY. They were helping STRQ with their stakeout at the docks when this happened, and I don’t think any of them were expecting it.” Ozpin looked at the picture and stared at the Hierophant for a little longer than necessary before shaking his head. “I wasn’t expecting such a clear picture myself.”

“And you’re not worried about them seeing it!?” Ironwood asked loudly.

“Not in the slightest. Glynda and myself debriefed everyone that night and, outside of STRQ, every one of them were under the impression that it was a particularly old Creature of Grimm that was brought by the White Fang. They weren’t wrong, so I didn’t correct them.” Ozpin swiped the picture away to show a new one of the Hierophant intimidating Roman Torchwick, who was wisely flinching away from it. “Still, the idea that local criminal elements are working with the White Fang and any small handful of Salem’s forces is… troubling, to say the least.”

“So what are we going to _do_ about it?”

“STRQ defeated the Hierophant at the docks and are cautiously optimistic it was killed. Even if it wasn’t, they have been pushed away from Vale for the time being. Summer is intent on rooting out Torchwick and the White Fang, so I think I’ll leave that to her team.” Ironwood blinked and pushed off the desk, his worry replaced grim concern.

“So you’re leaving this threat to be dealt with by a second year team, even if they are exceptional?”

“It won’t be the first time they prevailed over a criminal organization.”

“And do you really think your children will be ready to fight a war?”

“It’s not a war yet James, and even if one does come I pray they won’t be the ones fighting it.” Ozpin drained his mug and stood up, taking his cane off the desk as he walked around it. “So, unless there’s something else you wanted to discuss privately James, why don’t we take a walk around the campus. A lot has changed since you were last here and I do actually want to catch up.”

“Before that, there is one other thing,” Ironwood said picking up his mug and swished the half-drained liquid around, “I wanted to hear STRQ’s story about what happened at the docks for myself.”

“They’re not going to say anything different than what was in the report.”

“Still, I think it’s better to hear that kind of thing in person rather than in a report. There’s more you can pick up in how someone says something than what they say.”

“Well, as long as you don’t mind me sitting in on these talks you may. They are my students after all.” Ironwood nodded in agreement and drained the rest of his hot chocolate in a single go and set it on the desk before he walked to the elevators with Ozpin.

“So, where are Team STRQ?” Ironwood asked as the doors opened and they stepped in.

“The cafeteria most likely. I believe they’re serving waffles today.”

* * *

Indeed the cafeteria was serving waffles that day along with an assortment of vegetables, bread, hamburgers, steaks, and many other foods. One table even had a whole swordfish, to the bemusement of the students who sat at that table. For you see, this day was a day that the staff of the cafeteria of Beacon Academy looked forward to when they saw it on their schedule. A day for them to really cut loose and show their culinary skills by preparing a wide assortment of food for the students and staff.

For them, this was **_Wild Card Day!_ **

On this day, the students had a choice in how to proceed: stick with what they usually got if it was there or take the plunge in adventure by choosing something outside of their bubble in the gamble of finding something they might like. On this day, Team CRDL was not one of the latter.

“So she has these things, bigger than either of your heads,” Cardin said excitedly while gesturing with his hands, “and she walks on stage with them and is kinda struggling but she is going for it.”

“That’s insane!” Dove said with a small chuckle with Russel and Sky nodding in agreement on either side of him, “So what did she…” Dove trailed off and Cardin raised an eyebrow at how his team was suddenly sitting stiff.

“What’s wrong with you guys? You look like you… oh crap.” Cardin looked behind him to see Summer Rose staring down at him and his team holding a tray of food.

“Keeping your nose clean Cardin?” she asked evenly.

“Y-yes, very clean!” Cardin replied, barely keeping his panic in, “no need to involve yourself in my life at all! Ha ha ha… ha.”

Summer continued to stare at Cardin for a few more seconds before she nodded and said “Good,” before she started to walk away to leave CRDL behind to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Too close,” Russel whispered, “so what did she do with the cannonballs Cardin?”

“Huh? Oh right, so she loads them into these gigantic cannons right, and---”

 _‘What could they possibly be watching?’_ Summer wondered and shook her head, _‘I’ll never get reality television.’_ Thankfully she didn’t have to think on this for much longer since she reached the table her team was sitting at along with JNPR. Taiyang was nice enough to move over a space so Summer could sit between him and Raven, who was busy bouncing a ball repeatedly on the ground. “Sorry for taking so long, Wild Card days are hell for getting my usual stuff.”

“It’s fine, we’ve been keeping ourselves busy,” Qrow said holding a cracker up between his fingers. “Saltine,” he said and threw the cracker at Nora, who tried to bite it out of the air only to miss and watch it fly past her to the ground.

“That stupid game again?” Summer asked as Nora frustratedly pounded the table with a fist.

“They won’t listen to us when we discouraged them,” Pyrrha said as Nora called and threw an apple slice at Qrow, “but they did say they’ll clean up after themselves.”

“They better, and what is that you have Raven?”

“Bouncy ball,” Raven replied and held up said bouncy ball, black and green in color and big enough to fit in the palm of her hand.

“…Where did you get that and why?”

“The internet and because it’s fun.” Raven looked behind her at Maribelle and Redd walking behind JNPR and smirked. “Like so. Fore!” Raven threw the ball at the ground and watched bounce from there to the wall and from there back toward the walking girls. Redd saw the ball flying toward her and quickly held a hand out to block the ball. When it hit her hand it hung in the air long enough for her to rear her other hand back and punch it back toward the wall, where it bounced off and flew back into Raven’s hand.

“Good parry Redd,” Maribelle said and gave Raven a look before they both walked away as Raven waved them off.

“See what I mean?” Raven asked looking at Summer.

“Whatever Raven, just don’t hurt anyone ok?” Summer replied and started poking at her food with a fork when Jaune cleared his throat.

“I uh… like what you did with your hair, Summer. It looks good on you,” he said pointing to a part of Summer’s bangs that had been dyed silver all the way up to the top of her head. Summer glanced at the hair and back at Jaune.

“Congratulations Jaune, you’re the first person who’s noticed that in the week since I’ve done that,” Summer said as she glared at her team.

“You know, I thought you changed something but I didn’t want to say anything in case I was wrong, you know?” Taiyang defended pointing a spoonful of pudding at Summer.

“You were talking about it a while ago, so I didn’t think it worth mentioning when you did it,” Qrow said before calling and throwing an orange slice at Nora, who caught it in her mouth. The two met eyes and the air between them grew more tense.

“Fore!” Raven shouted and threw her bouncy ball at the wall and watched it fly to a nearby table and hit a bunch of glasses, all of which shattered with a satisfying sound. Raven pumped a fist and held a hand up to catch the ball when a first year threw it back at her.

“…See what I have to deal with Jaune? At least your team is semi-normal,” Summer said with a small sigh.

“Food war!” Nora shouted and spat the orange slice back at Qrow who tried to catch it with his teeth only for it to fly past him and land on the bench next to him. Qrow growled in frustration and buried his head in his hands while Nora jumped to her feet and shouted, “Yes, five points!” as she held her arm over her head.

“Well most of them anyway.”

“You get used to it,” Pyrrha said and smiled at Summer, “but I agree with Jaune, that looks good on you.” She looked at Ren as he nodded as well and suddenly felt a weight on her head that felt like a pair of arms.

“I was wondering when they’d notice that Sum,” Velvet said grinning widely at the underclassman team. Raven turned around to look at Velvet with the rest of her team and instead looked at Pyrrha.

“The hell are you blushing so much for?” she asked.

“I don’t know!” Pyrrha said as she tried to move her body, only to find it was frozen stiff. _‘Whatever you do Pyrrha, don’t think about… oh no, now I am.’_

“Oh don’t worry about Pyrrha here,” Velvet said and pat Pyrrha on her head, which did nothing to help her with her blushing problem, and pointed at Summer. “I wanted to ask you about that… thing that we were working on. You know, like ‘when are we getting back on that since it’s been two weeks’? Questions like that.”

“Later,” Summer answered as she ate a bit of waffle.

“Later as in…?”

“Later as in ‘shut up about it while around nosy first years’ later.” Summer pointed at Pyrrha, who by now had decided to ignore everything around her (like Nora poking her in the cheek with a breakfast sausage) and stare at her food with narrow pupils. Velvet leaned forward to look at Pyrrha and watched as her eyes shot to look at her for a second before returning to her tray.

“Ah, I gotcha,” Velvet nodded and took herself off of Pyrrha, “guess I should have figured huh? So when should I-?”

“Later,” Summer repeated and made a ‘shoo’ gesture at Velvet, who stared flatly at her before walking away while muttering ‘Be that way.’ The table watched her walk away and sit with her team and Jaune poked at his partner’s shoulder.

“She’s gone now Pyrrha, you can breathe again,” he said with the only response he got was Pyrrha taking a deep breath a few seconds later and going back to staring at her food. Jaune shook his head and looked back at Summer. “She’ll be like this for a while, but she’ll be ok once her brain restarts.”

“She chooses the weirdest things to have a panic about,” Raven said smirking at the red head, “but that’s part of the fun of having her around. Fore!” Raven threw her ball at the wall and watched it bounce off toward Ren, who ducked it and let some poor first year walking behind him take the hit and collapse with an exaggerated scream.

“So what were you guys doing with CFVY?” Nora asked while Ren picked up the bouncy ball and gave it back to Raven, “some kind of super-secret spy stuff with jetpacks and those water squirting flowers you wear on your lapel? Peach Marmalade by the way.”

“Ugh, no thanks,” Qrow said and ducked under the latest attack in this game of food, “and don’t be ridiculous. Do we look like the kind of people to have jetpacks lying around?’

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Ren replied.

“Well we don’t, awesome as it would be,” Taiyang said and gestured at JNPR with a spoon, “and don’t any of you worry about that or us. We have it under control.”

“Well maybe we could help,” Jaune said motioning at his team, “we’ve gotten better since the start of the year after all. Don’t you think so Pyrrha?” Jaune looked at Pyrrha, still frozen in shock, and his expression fell flat as he stared at her. He held out a hand and Summer silently put a cupcake in it. Jaune unwrapped the cake and held it in front of Pyrrha’s nose, waving it around slightly to make sure it got her attention, and smiled a little when she took a bite out of it and set it in Pyrrha’s hand.

“What were we talking about?” Pyrrha asked now a little confused as to why she was eating a cupcake.

“Helping Summer out with whatever she’s doing.”

“Oh, yes. I’d love to help if you want.”

“The answer is no,” Summer said firmly, “just because you have some experience now doesn’t mean you are ready for what we do. You all would just be dead weight.” Summer took a bite of a strawberry strudel gestured at JNPR as she chewed and swallowed. “Besides you all have your own worries coming up. The Vytal Festival is almost here and Huntsman teams from the other academies are coming in. _Everybody_ will be judging each other and us most of all as the hosts. So please try and behave yourselves ok?”

“I don’t think it’s us you have to worry about,” Nora said pointing at Raven, which Summer could only nod in agreement at.

“I have no idea what you guys are talking about,” Raven said smugly and reared back for another throw. She threw it with another callout of ‘Fore’ only to jump to her feet when the ball hit the wall and bounced into a pillar. “Crap, bad angle!” Raven watched the ball bounce to the right and hit another pillar, bounce off it into a wall, and shoot straight at a sitting Coco Adel and hit her right in the face.

Coco’s head shot back, her beret and the ball hitting the ground along with one of the lenses from her sunglasses, and everybody around her came to a dead stop as they watched her. After a moment Coco put her head forward and glared at Raven through her broken sunglasses before she took them off and crushed them in her hand.

“Raven…” Coco growled venomously as Yatsuhashi and Velvet looked STRQ’s way and Fox started to stand up.

Raven, for her part, could only utter a small, “…Shit.”


	3. The New Semester part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can I just say, the bathos present in writing a food fight as this ultra serious fight scene is delicious. I hope that the V2 animators had just as much fun making that as I did writing this.

Just outside of the Mess Hall Sun was regaling his team with the story of what he had been up to since had arrived in Vale. “So then the dude is looking for her and I drop a banana on his head, which sounds gross but was really cool at the time!”

“Nice,” one of the boys with electric blue hair and a red jacket said with a nod. Even if Neptune had been angry with Sun he was certainly enjoying the story.

“And then more White Fang surround me and I fight them off, Velvet comes in with a kick like a rocket and knocks some guy right out! We fought the lead guy and I totally ended up saving Velvet from being crushed by a container.”

“But he still got away didn’t he?” Sage, the largest member of Team SSSN, asked. He most definitely was angry at Sun for ditching them, but the fact that Sun doing so led to him inadvertently stopping a major crime earned him _just_ enough points for forgiveness. _‘I just wish I could have been there.’_

“Yeah he did, but I got a consolation prize of watching that annoying motherfucker of a Grimm get obliterated by a laser! I even helped get Summer out of the way just in time.”

“Did you use a grappling hook?” Scarlet, the last member of Team SSSN, asked. Sun gave Scarlet a flat look and clasped his hands together.

“No Scarlet, I didn’t use a grappling hook.”

“Oh. Well, your way is a close second I guess.”

“Shut up.” Sun suddenly looked very panicked and jumped in front of his team, “I totally forgot, you can’t tell anyone about that Grimm! It’s supposed to be a secret!”

“Got it,” Sage said while rolling his eyes.

“I’m serious about this! The headmaster of the school told me _himself_ not to tell anyone. So don’t say anything! Especially you Scarlet!”

“Why are you singling me out?” Scarlet asked.

“Dude, relax. We got it,” Neptune said and nodded when Sun looked at him. “So, different topic, what are the second years like? You hung out with some of them yeah?”

“Oh yeah, Team CFVY and STRQ,” Sun said and started to lead the way toward the front of the cafeteria, ignoring the yells and crashes coming from inside along with the food hitting the windows. “You guys will love them, second years are a whole world beyond us! Complete badasses every one of them!”

“Are the girls cute?” Neptune asked.

“And more than willing to kick your ass if you say the wrong thing to them. And stay away from Raven, I’m pretty sure she’s killed someone for fun at least once.”

“What is going on in there?” Scarlet asked being the only one on his team to notice the chaos inside the building. He jumped a little when an unfortunate blonde student got launched into the window, their eyes meeting as he slid down and out of view.

“Don’t worry about that and focus on not making a bad impression,” Sun said and waved for Scarlet to rejoin the group as they rounded a corner. “I’m pretty sure they actually like me and I don’t want you to screw that up for me. So please be cool, ok?”

“Dude,” Neptune said simply and crossed his arms. Sage posed next to him, leaning heavily on his left leg while his right was straightened out with his right arm mimicking it, and held his left hand in front of his face with his palm facing his face and his fingers spread out so he could peak through the gaps. Scarlet also posed, leaning against Neptune with his back to him and one of his feet hunched up and resting against his knee. His red pirate coat was nearly falling off his shoulders as he held his right hand up with a finger gun pointing up. All three of them then flashed a grin at Sun, their teeth sparkling just a little in the sunlight.

Sun stared at his team for a moment before he finally said, “At least I can count on you Neptune.”

“Oh whatever,” Sage said rolling his eyes again and he returned to a normal stance, “are we going to meet these second years now or what?”

“Didn’t STRQ kill a Goliath without taking a hit?” Scarlet asked as they approached the cafeteria entrance, the crashes sounding a lot louder now, “I think I read that online somewhere.”

“That’s not true. They actually got hurt real bad in that fight and hate that rumor,” Sun answered and turned to his team as they stopped next to the doors. “But as long as you don’t bring stuff like that up they’re real chill. It apparently takes a lot to rile them up.”

Cue the doors bursting open as a stampede of students ran out in a panic. All of SSSN watched it until Sun reached into the crowd and pulled out a student with a mohawk. “What’s going on?” Sun asked.

“STRQ and CFVY are fighting in there!” the student answered and wriggled out of Sun’s grip and continued running, “Getting caught in their wrath once was enough for me!” Sun looked back at his team and they all ran into the cafeteria to watch the show. Inside they found most of the tables were askew and at the far end of the hall was what could only be described as a junk pile of vending machines and tables with Team CFVY and JNPR at various places on it.

“I’m queen of the castle! I’m queen of the castle!” Nora shouted with a laugh, her words echoing easily in the hall.

“Those sunglasses cost 5000 Lien easily, and that’s just the cheap version!” Coco shouted angrily and pointed down from her perch, “Now you’re going to pay for the most expensive pair I can find STRQ!”

Summer responded from her table by stomping down on a tray and launching the food on it into the air. “Not a chance Coco, it was an accident! And JNPR, you fucking traitors, you better be ready to die on the hill that you chose!” Summer then caught a milk carton out of the air and crushed it as she shouted, “Because vengeance is coming, it will be painful and delicious!”

“Hell yeah!” Qrow agreed.

“Your dead meat Jaune!” Taiyang shouted.

“Why me!?” Jaune shouted back obviously terrified.

“Let’s fuck them up!” Raven yelled, hefting a swordfish over her shoulder.

“Attack!” Coco ordered with a point forward. Jaune, Ren, Pyrrha, and Nora leapt off the mountain of junk and landed near a table of watermelons, the first three started chucking melons across the hall while Nora just flat out flipped the table launching the rest of them.

“Scatter and arm yourselves!” Summer shouted and Blinked away. Qrow followed after her while Taiyang and Raven charged to meet the fruit barrage. Taiyang made a quick detour to get some turkey gauntlets while Raven spun her swordfish in preparation for the fight. Once the melons were close enough she leapt into the air and started cutting apart melons with the fish, spraying juice over herself and the surrounding floor, and soon fell back to the floor. Taiyang covered her from getting hit with his new meaty weapons until he saw an opening and spun around to launch one of the turkeys straight at Jaune, who took it to the face and found himself sliding backwards into a vending machine.

“Jaune! Stop being useless and start collecting grapes!” Coco ordered as she jumped down to him.

“Huh?” Jaune asked and looked at Coco as she waved her bag at him.

“Grapes. Now.”

“Y-yes ma’am!” Jaune nodded and started crawling along the floor while Coco returned her attention to the battle, particularly Fox and Pyrrha as they moved to intercept Taiyang and Raven.

They met in the middle of the hall, fist and turkey meeting lunch trays and fish meeting baguette. The fish dug into the bread, though Pyrrha shouldn’t have been too shocked by that as she was, and Raven smirked as she made the push needed to cut Pyrrha’s weapon in two and kicked Pyrrha away to help Taiyang with Fox.

Fox blocked a couple of Taiyang’s punches before he noticed Raven’s Aura was preparing for an attack and spun to deflect Raven’s swordfish with one of his trays and launched the other at her to get some space. Taiyang threw another punch at Fox that was deflected by his remaining lunch tray before being grabbed with Fox’s free hand. Taiyang soon found himself flipped off his feet and taking a kick to his stomach that launched back to the cafeteria’s entrance.

Fox flipped out of the way of another slash from Raven and jumped onto a table when he felt two friendly Auras coming from behind. Raven saw them in her peripheral and easily deflected Ren’s leeks with her fish and watched as Yatsuhashi jumped over Ren with his arms reared behind him. Raven twirled her fish and readied behind her before she swung it at him hoping to parry whatever attack Yatsuhashi could throw at her.

Instead she found her swordfish hit and dig itself halfway into a massive rack of ribs and get stuck there. Massive, unwieldy, dripping with barbeque sauce, it could hardly be called ribs as it were. Indeed it was rather a massive slab of meat. Raven narrowed her eyes at Yatsuhashi, who let out the smallest of smiles, and she angled her arms and let go of her weapon so the ribs crashed to the side and she jumped and kicked off of Yatsuhashi’s chest onto a table.

As Raven ran to get a new weapon she passed by Velvet and Nora fighting Summer, who was keeping the other girls back with a pair of linked sausages she was wielding like whips. Velvet was keeping her distance and waiting for an opening wide enough for her to slip while Nora charged in at the first opening she saw. She reared back her makeshift hammer (a flagpole she had collected at the start with a watermelon on the end) and tried to bring it down on Summer only for a link of sausages to wrap around the pole and get yanked down far earlier than Nora had intended. The watermelon smashed into pieces onto the floor and the pole was yanked from Nora’s hands before the other link wrapped around her neck.

Summer pulled back on the link sending Nora flying and threw the other one back to wrap around her ankles and, after doing a quick spin, threw the redhead back toward the vending machine pile before whipping a link at Velvet. The rabbit Faunus held an arm up and the sausages wrapped around her forearm before grabbing and yanking them out of Summer’s grip. Velvet unwrapped the sausages from her arms and gave them a test crack before running at Summer and whipping the sausages at her. Summer did the same and the sausages met in the middle with a deafening *crack* and slipped away from each other before the girls ran past each other. They turned around and whipped the sausages again and the weapons clashed against each other over and over again, the girls attacking faster each time, until the links hit just right to wrap around each other and leaving Summer and Velvet holding one long chain of sausages.

Both of them grabbed the sausages and yanked on it, sending both of them flying toward the other. Summer blinked at Velvet, who managed to move out of the way of the kick in time, and both of them let go of the sausages as they flew past each other. Velvet watched Summer grab a handful of nachos and move to fight Fox before she saw a flash of gray taking the sausages and disappearing under a table.

That particular bit of oddity didn’t get the best of Velvet for very long since almost immediately afterwards she heard Yatsuhashi yell and land on his back in front of her, his rack of ribs clattering out of his hand. “Yatsuhashi!” Velvet cried and rushed to her partner’s side, kneeling down and taking in the multitude of corn dogs jammed into his uniform jacket with ketchup dripping down it. Yatsuhashi weakly held up a hand and Velvet took it in her own. “What happened?”

“Too… much… gluten,” Yatsuhashi said weakly before he collapsed.

“No… Yatsuhashi…” Velvet let out and squeezed Yatsuhashi’s hand. Naturally this sad moment was ruined by Maribelle crawling out from under a table and reaching toward Yatsuhashi. Velvet met the intruder’s eyes for a moment before Maribelle pointed at a corn dog.

“You going to eat that?” she asked and Velvet shook her head. Maribelle took a corn dog, wiped up some of the ketchup from Yatsuhashi’s jacket, and took a bite. “Thank you, you can go back to your weird drama now,” was the last thing she said before vanishing back under the table.

“Velvet!” On hearing her name Velvet looked at Taiyang holding several corn dogs between his fingers while standing on a table. “This is how it always is isn’t it? The two of us going against each other while the world burns around us.”

“You…” Velvet growled out grabbing a fistful of Yatsuhashi’s jacket, “You did this!”

“Well… duh,” Taiyang waved some corn dogs around before throwing them at an approaching Ren. “Back off boy!”

“It’s fine Ren, I can handle this,” Velvet said standing up slowly and looking at Ren, “Fox could use your help more than me.” Ren looked at her for a moment before nodding.

“Stay safe,” Ren said and twirled one of his leeks before running to help Fox fight Raven. Velvet jumped and did a side flip onto the table and picked up a couple mushroom kebabs before she started to walk slowly toward Taiyang.

“Oh, you’re approaching me?” Taiyang asked holding his corn dogs up to his face, “Even after what happened to Yatsuhashi you’re approaching me?”

“It’s because of that I am. I can’t beat the crap out of you without getting closer!” Velvet shouted and flipped a kebab into a reverse hold.

“I’d like to see you try.” Taiyang started walking to Velvet and a second later they ran and met in the middle of a table, corn dog meeting kebab, and pushed against each other as Summer Blinked next to them dodging soda can grenades. Summer managed to dodge two before she saw Pyrrha slam a hand on the ground and levitate several cans around her.

“Velvet, get down!” Nora shouted and Velvet looked back which gave Taiyang the opening he needed to kick Velvet away and follow up by throwing his corn dogs at her, most of which missed save for one that caught her in the shoulder. Velvet spun off the table and out of the way from the impact, giving Pyrrha a straight shot to throw her hand out to fire all the collected soda cans at Summer and Taiyang. Taiyang saw what was happening and jumped in front of Summer, shielding her from the majority of the sugary drink explosions while still knocking them both backwards. Summer slid along the ground with Taiyang on top of her until they hit an upturned table.

“Tai, are you ok?” Summer asked as Taiyang groaned and rubbed his forehead.

“Soda… is so hard to get out of clothing,” he replied. They both heard Raven screaming and Taiyang looked up in time for his face to catch Raven’s stomach.

“Ow,” Raven said once she had settled on her teammates, “Fox hasn’t been skipping leg day at all.”

“Raven, get your butt out of my face!” Summer shouted and hit Raven’s leg with a fist.

“Will all of you stop flirting!” Qrow said as he landed on a table next to his team, “we’re in the middle of a fight!”

“And where the fuck have you been all this time!?” Raven shouted before Summer roughly shoved her off.

“I’ve been providing background support. I failed in that by the way.”

“What?” Summer asked when something hit the table next to her head. A bit of juice landed on her face and she tasted it with her tongue and noticed Coco folding up her minigun into a handbag. She opened it so Jaune could dump a large plate of grapes into it, after which she closed it and turned it back into a minigun. Coco gave Summer an evil smile as she revved it up.

“Gatling grapes! Take cover!” Summer shouted and jumped behind the table as Coco opened fire. Raven and Taiyang were right behind her while Qrow made a dive to the table, catching just a tiny bit of the juicy barrage to his leg.

“Qrow!” Taiyang said as he and Raven pulled Qrow fully behind cover to get away from the grape barrage.

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” Qrow said as he massaged his calf and held up a hand covered in juice. “She’s using red grapes too. Son of a bitch, she means business!”

“Then we’ve got enough wine without you adding more Qrow, stay focused!” Summer said and tried to peek around the table only to jerk her head back when a volley of grapes hit near her. “Damn, we’re pinned down here!” Summer said looking at her team. “We need to think of a plan and… is that Maribelle?” Her teammates looked at where Maribelle was and watched her pick up a slice of barbeque chicken pizza, sniff it, and shrug before taking a bite. “The hell is she doing here?”

“Her team has been scrounging food this entire time, vultures of the battlefield,” Qrow said shaking his head, “I’d be angry at them, but to be honest I’d be doing the same thing if I were in their place.”

“Oh whatever!” Summer flinched as something hit their cover and a spray of orange soda flew over the table and covered her and Raven. “Damn, they’re throwing soda again!”

“Don’t suppose you got any ideas?” Raven asked and flinched at another soda explosion and opened her eyes to see a familiar black and green ball bounce past. “Oh there’s my ball. I was wondering where that went.”

“Wait what?” Summer asked and Raven pointed out the ball as it bounced against Maribelle’s thigh and settled in a plate of spaghetti. A flash of inspiration hit Summer and she grinned widely. “That ball might just be the ace we need! We’ll need MRGD to play ball though.”

“They’re neutral in this!” Taiyang protested, “they won’t side with us against CFVY!” A barrage of grapes ran along the ground next to Qrow, causing him to jerk his hand back and shake it slightly.

“We don’t have a choice, we have to at least try!” Summer laid across her teammates laps and stuck her fingers into her mouth to whistle and get Maribelle’s attention. The sheep Faunus perked up and looked around before she saw Summer, who mimicked bouncing a ball with one hand and pointing at Maribelle with the other. She looked at the ball and picked it up, gently shaking the sauce off of it and holding it up for Summer to see. Summer nodded and gestured at herself just as another barrage of grapes hit the floor between the two.

Maribelle flinched at the fruity barrage and leveled a flat look at Summer. She then ate the rest of her pizza in one bite before rubbing her thumb and fingers together. _“Make it worth my while.”_

 _‘At least it’s not a hard no,’_ Summer thought and rubbed her chin, _‘but what could I offer her to get her on my side with no risk of her betraying me to Coco?’_ Summer looked around and found a prize worthy of Maribelle’s undying loyalty, grabbed it, and held it up. Maribelle’s eyes lit up and she started drooling at the sight of a whole turkey in pristine condition. Summer motioned between the two of them and Maribelle nodded vigorously before she looked around for where her team was situated.

“Let’s see… Redd is risking CFVY’s wrath to get some soda, Gale is pilfering vegetables like a weirdo, and Gray is still eating those sausages. If he can get to that flour… yeah, this could work.” With a plan forming in her head, Maribelle rolled onto her back, braced her feet on the underside of the table she was hiding under, and started making a set of bird calls.

Her team wasn’t the only one who heard it though. Coco halted her grape based salvo and held a hand up to halt fire on her side. “Did you all hear that? Was that a Mistralian Warbler?” Coco asked as she scanned the battlefield.

“It must be Maribelle,” Fox called up from the bottom of the ‘hill’, “I felt several different Aura all around that wasn’t us or STRQ. Now that I focus on it, it’s probably MRGD scrounging.”

“Scavengers. Whatever, as long as they don’t cross me they can do what they want.” Maribelle’s bird calls quieted as Coco focused on the table STRQ was still hiding behind and shouted, “Summer, I’ve decided to be merciful in my victory! If you and your team come out quietly we’ll end this peacefully. Nothing but fruity death awaits you otherwise!”

“NOW!” Maribelle shouted and kicked the underside of her table hard enough to launch it into the air. As it hung in the air Gale shot out from under another table and jumped up to the airborne table and landed feet first. The table shifted under her weight and she grabbed a donut out of the air along with three popsicles out of the air to shove into the donut. With her weapon ready Gale focused on Fox at the far end of the hall and pushed off the table, sending it flying backwards while she flew toward Fox.

Fox sensed Gale’s Aura rapidly approaching and quickly held up a tray to block the attack, which he successfully did before the tray was ripped out of his grip and he caught a slash to his face on his eyes, nose, and mouth. He yelped in shock at the sudden cold on his skin and shot an arm out to grab Gale’s wrist so he could spin her around once and throw her back out into the mess hall. She screamed in surprise the whole way until she landed in a pile of smashed watermelon, sending a spray of red juice and fruit into the air.

“Fox, you ok!?” Coco called down as Fox wiped the popsicle juice out of his eyes.

“It’s green apple flavored!” Fox called back after tasting his wounds, “Why would she choose that flavor!?”

“Sons of- you would side with STRQ over us!? You’ll pay for this!” Coco shouted and immediately caught a bag of flour to the face that had been launched her way. Nora saw that Gray had been the one who launched that attack and countered with a couple more soda grenades. He batted them out of the air with the sausage whip he had stolen earlier and, when he was safe from the orange flavored explosions, snapped the meat links around another bag of flour and whipped it at the ‘hill’ where it exploded into a large cloud.

With the opposition effectively blinded Redd saw her chance to escape back to the middle of the hall and saw her partner roll out from under a table and whistle at her pointing at a table. Redd nodded and quickly dropkicked the table so it was at a better angle for Maribelle to jump on. Redd looked down at her two prizes from her risky excursion and quietly lamented their sacrifice as she shook the soda cans before lobbing one under the table end Maribelle was at while dropping the other at her feet.

By this point Coco had wiped the flour from her eyes and resumed her grape barrage, just barely missing Redd as the soda exploded under her and sent her into the air. Gray saw Pyrrha reading a baguette like a javelin and whipped his sausages around one of the cafeteria’s lights to swing up and successfully block his teammate from being hit by the bread when Pyrrha threw it. Redd silently thanked him as he fell into a pile of plates while she spun in the air and aimed for the opposite end of the table.

She landed just as the second soda she had exploded, turning the table into a makeshift catapult that launched Maribelle into the air over STRQ’s hiding spot before she got cut down by Coco. Once she saw Summer she threw the bouncy ball down so it would land in Summer’s lap and grinned when Taiyang threw the turkey up into her path. She grabbed it out of the air and hugged it tightly as she flipped and landed on a table, which was when she noticed Coco glaring and aiming her minigun at her.

“I regret nothing!” was the last thing Maribelle shouted before Coco opened fire and grapes started hitting her, her body jerking with every hit and staining her uniform and white hair, until she was finally thrown back off her feet into a punch bowl that upturned and dumped its contents all over her.

“That’s what you get Maribelle!” Coco shouted just as a trail of white petals shot out from behind STRQ’s table while Taiyang, Raven, and Qrow spread out. Coco focused on Summer, who met her gaze as she was rearing her arm back.

“Tai!” She shouted as she threw something. Coco dodged out of the way and saw the black and green ball that started this mess hit where she had been just a second before and bounced off the vending machine, off a table to a wall and toward Taiyang.

 _‘Oh crap!’_ she thought as Taiyang braced a hand against a table and spun his body horizontally over the table so he could kick the ball back toward the hill with a callout to Raven. The ball flew back faster than before toward Jaune where it hit his groin before bouncing away leaving the blonde shrieking before rolling off the vending machine pile and onto the floor.

Raven reached her position in time to see the ball bounce off the wall toward her and lowered her stance before she put her hands together to volleyball check the ball upwards. The ball hit the ceiling, bounced off to the floor, and repeated several times until Raven saw her chance and dropkicked the ball toward Ren with a callout to Qrow, hitting the ground and rolling toward Summer when she was done.

Time slowed down for Ren and his eyes narrowed as the bouncy death rapidly approached him, though he was saved at the last second by Nora. She pushed him out of the way and punched the ball back toward Qrow, who had picked up a baguette and readied it like a baseball bat. He watched the bouncy ball and swung the bread to hit the ball back toward the hill faster, breaking the bread in half in the process. “Summer!” he shouted and looked at Summer, who was charging at Raven as she knelt and cupped her hands together.

Coco folded her gun back into her handbag and held it up to block the ball and hoped it would kill some of its momentum. No such luck as it flew again just as Summer was boosted into the air by Raven, spinning as she rose in the air with her cloak billowing behind her with rose petals flying off of her. Summer readied a kick and focused on the ball flying toward her.

“MOOOOONBAAAAALL!” She cried out just as she Blinked toward the ball and kicked it. For a brief moment Summer and the ball hung in the air fighting against each other and, to some of the onlookers, it looked like the color itself inverted around them before it was over. With a crack the ball shot toward Coco with Summer screaming as she flew in the opposite direction into Taiyang’s arms and Coco could only look as her doom came to her.

“Oh son of a-“ Coco started to say when the ball hit her in the face. That was only the start of the pain though as the ball bounced between everyone there, Coco to Fox to Pyrrha, sparring no one. During the bouncing the ball ricocheted into one of the vending machines and shot through it causing its contents to explode, which caused a chain reaction in the vending machines that caused more explosions of soda and sent the members of CFVY and JNPR into the air while still being hit by the bouncy ball to keep them suspended.

Soon the soda explosions ended with one massive carbonated explosion, sending the student Huntsmen flying along with anything that was too close and sending the bouncy ball back toward STRQ bouncing on both the ceiling and floor. Summer, having watched the chaos with her team, wriggled out of Taiyang’s arms and walked to the still bouncing ball.

“Game: STRQ.” she said before she swiped her hand at where the ball was bouncing and caught creating another small ‘crack’ and felt a stinging pain in her hand even with the Aura. She watched as her defeated opponents crashed to the ground and settled down, covered in soda and whatever foodstuffs they had landed in with the only exception being Fox having found himself hanging from one of the rafters. Summer looked back at her team as they all gave her thumbs up, Raven practically radiating sarcasm as she did so, and Summer grinned widely and fidgeted excitedly in place. “That was so fucking awesome!” she whispered at them, which got a couple eye rolls from her teammates.

“Bloody hell,” Scarlet finally said after everything had settled, simply staring wide-eyed and ignoring the cherry pie dripping down his hair.

“I love these guys,” Sun said happily having somehow managed to avoid getting a bit of food splattered on him.

“I can understand why,” Sage said wiping a bit of jam off his face and flicking it to the floor, “That was cool to watch though.” Neptune said nothing, covered in grape soda as he was, and glared at Sun as Yatsuhashi walked up next to him.

“Oh, hey Yats!” Sun said and nervously asked, “It’s alright to call you that right?”

“I don’t mind, but don’t make it a habit,” Yatsuhashi said and took a bit from one of the corndogs he had been incapacitated by. He motioned at Scarlet, Sage, and Neptune and swallowed his food before asking, “Are these your teammates?”

“Oh yeah, I’ll introduce you to them later,” Sun said and snagged a corndog from Yatsuhashi’s jacket and took a bite. “You guys could probably use a rest after all of that fun.”

“I’m just glad I wasn’t in there,” Yatsuhashi gestured to where his team and JNPR were laying as all of them started picking themselves off the ground.

The doors to the hall crashed open and a furious looking Glynda Goodwitch walked in, growling quietly when she saw Team STRQ once again in the middle of the latest mess. She stopped where the main mess started and started waving her crop around the room with the effects being almost immediate: tables shook and levitated back into the neat rows they had been in before, broken plates and glasses mended themselves and flew to their designated storage areas, spilled drink evaporated and all the food gathered up and were deposited into the numerous trash cans scattered throughout the hall. When all was said and done the cafeteria was back in its proper state and Team JNPR, Coco, and Velvet had been deposited at a nearby table still in something of a daze.

“Food is for eating, not playing,” Glynda scolded and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose as she saw the ball in Summer’s hands and, with another wave of her crop, pulled the ball out of Summer’s grip and caught it in midair. “This is also confiscated.”

None of the students dared say anything, simply standing there under Glynda’s gaze, until Nora let out a large belch that echoed through the hall and Fox fell from the rafter onto the table which broke it in half. “Ow,” was Fox’s only reply as Glynda glared at the table she’d have to fix _again_ and looked to the side as Redd, Gale, and Gray scurried to surround their fallen leader.

“Hey Mari, you ok?” Gale asked as she pulled out a couple of the feathers in her hair that had gone askew during the ‘fight’ while Redd and Gray looked her over.

“My body hurts,” Maribelle answered quietly, “My uniform is ruined, my hair is sticky.” Redd helped turn Maribelle around so she was sitting on the floor, where she grinned widely and held out the turkey for her team to see. “But the turkey is safe and sound!”

Redd and Gale stared at Maribelle for an uncomfortable couple of seconds until Gray started laughing and fell down and rolled onto his back, soon followed by Gale and Redd with Maribelle just chuckling to herself quietly. The laughter was infectious and soon JNPR joined in laughing, followed by Coco, Velvet, and Fox (him a little more uproariously than the others) and finally STRQ.

This was the sight that greeted Ozpin and Ironwood as they also entered the mess hall having followed Glynda when she got the report. Ozpin and Ironwood shared a look, the latter more than a little disapproving, and Ozpin shook his head as he walked past Team SSSN and a smiling Yatsuhashi toward Glynda and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Let it go,” he said simply. Glynda looked back at him and went from ‘furious’ to her normal ‘stern’ as she looked back at the laughing students.

“They’re supposed to be the defenders of the world,” she said as she watched Yatsuhashi walk past her and STRQ to join his team.

“And they will be,” Ozpin answered, taking his hand off Glynda’s shoulder and looking around the hall, from Team MRGD breaking the turkey apart to eat to Yatsuhashi helping Fox out of the table and JNPR and STRQ simply enjoying themselves. “But right now they’re just children, unknowing of their positions and simply enjoying themselves. Some never even had the chance to _be_ children.” Ozpin gently gestured at STRQ, with Summer clinging to Taiyang’s arm while Raven and Qrow had their arms around each other’s shoulders while they laughed. Glynda let the faintest hint of melancholy show as she looked back at Ozpin.

“Let them play the part,” he continued and held his hand out to Glynda, who looked down at the bouncy ball and gave it to Ozpin. He gave it a couple bounces as he turned around and started to leave the cafeteria. “They won’t be able to forever,” he said to Glynda and looked at Ironwood, who nodded the slightest of nods in response. Ironwood watched Ozpin walk past him and looked at the students for a moment before sighing softly and moving to follow the Beacon Headmaster.

_‘I can debrief them tomorrow.’_

* * *

“Now isn’t this just the most beautiful thing Neo?” Roman asked while waving his cane around as he looked around the warehouse. Several White Fang soldiers were busy unloading equipment and Dust, at least the ones who weren’t doing maintenance on the various Bullheads in the warehouse, and Roman was particularly proud of the many containers full of Dust that he had pinned his map of Vale onto. Neo herself was having fun being out of bed and fully recovered, which she showed by lying on the table Roman was working on kicking her feet in the air while Roman did his thing of gloating.

“It’s amazing what enough hands, my brains, and your competency in keeping the mutts in line can accomplish, huh?” Roman asked, gesturing to the whole warehouse. Neo responded with a nod and then an eyeroll when Roman shooed her off the table so he could look over a couple of documents that the Fang took along with some Dust. “And with you back in action things should go even smoother! Now then, what should we hit next? Dust shops should be pretty dry by now, so why not a Huntsmen depot? Think you can do it?”

Neo shrugged her shoulders. It would be a good challenge, but she also wasn’t too keen to go face to face with Huntsmen again after the last time. Her stomach still hurt at the thought. Neo glanced to her right and tapped on the table to get Roman’s attention and pointed at the newest arrivals. _‘Tweedledee and Tweedle_ **_dumb.’_ **

“Oh look at that, she sent the kids again!” Roman said, voice dripping with sarcasm, as he approached Emerald and Mercury and wrapped his arms around their shoulders. “It’s just like after the divorce, right Neo?”

“Ugh, spare us the thought of you reproducing,” Emerald said in disgust slapping Roman’s arm away. As much as Neo enjoyed Roman’s company, she definitely had to agree with Emerald on that and made a quick ‘gag me’ gesture. Roman took his arm off of Mercury and pushed between the two, his hand lightly brushing against Emerald’s pants as he did so.

“Just a little joke on my part,” Roman replied with a little humor and glanced at Neo, who mocked an innocent whistle, and held up a piece of paper he took from Emerald. “But this might just tell me where you two have been all day.”

“What the-!?” Emerald checked her pockets frantically, “How did you-?”

“I’m a professional sweetheart,” Roman answered as he turned around and leaned against the table, “so if you stick around a little bit, you might actually learn something.” Neo made a finger gun gesture at Emerald, which did its job of annoying her, and looked at Roman as his face grew serious and he showed the paper to her. “Why do you have this address?”

 _‘Address? What… oh,’_ Neo thought as she looked at the note and gave Emerald and Mercury the same dirty look as Roman.

“We were taking care of your mess,” Emerald answered with a slight hint of smugness.

“I had that under control.”

“Two packed bags and a ticket to Vacuo says otherwise,” Mercury replied.

“Listen you punk,” Roman said as he crumpled the note and approached Mercury, “I just about have half a mind to take you and your street rat friend out back and-!”

“You’ll do what?” a voice, sleek and seductive, asked loudly and drew the attention of Roman, Neo, Emerald, and Mercury to the catwalk over the warehouse. There, leaning against the railing with a hand on her chin, was one Cinder Fall. She pushed off the railing and walked along the catwalk to a nearby lift, her glass heels clacking the whole way, and stepped on the lift to go down to the ground floor.

“Well…” Roman said carefully, “I… _won’t_ beat them to death?”

“Cinder, you’re here!” Emerald said cheerfully, enough so that it made Neo gag for real. Cinder walked past Emerald and Mercury, deliberately ignoring Emerald opening her arms for a hug, and approached Roman before glancing Neo’s way.

“You can go,” she said waving her hand to shoo Neo away, “I need to talk to Roman for a moment.” Neo glared at Cinder and was so close to grabbing her parasol when Roman put his cane in front of her and got her attention.

“It’ll be alright,” he said and pointed to an area past a shelf with his cane, “go get some fresh air. I’ll come find you.” Neo and Roman stared at each other for a moment, with him gesturing with his cane the whole time, until Neo slowly started to walk away past Cinder and her cronies. When Cinder turned back to Roman Neo flashed a reverse V-sign at Cinder as she vanished around a shelf, which certainly made Neo feel better.

Now with a bit more free time on her hands, Neo wondered what to do with it when she saw a White Fang soldier at the warehouse’s entrance arguing with some girl. Figuring that would be worth watching Neo quickly camouflaged herself and made her way over.

“Look girl, I don’t know what you’re thinking coming here, but you better leave if you know what’s good for you!” he said pointing behind the girl. Neo raised an eyebrow when she got a good look at the girl, mostly at the red cloak around her shoulders. She also didn’t seem too fazed by the muscular Faunus threatening her if her bored expression and crossed arms meant anything.

“As I already told you, we know people here,” the girl said calmly, “just go find Cinder and she’ll vouch for us and we can-“

“I’ve never heard of this ‘Cinder’ and even if I did I wouldn’t find her for you. Now get out!” He pointed behind the girl again and after a moment of the two silently staring at each other she sighed, turned around, and jerked a thumb at him.

“He’s not listening to me Yang. Maybe he’ll listen to you,” she said and walked a few steps away to be replaced by who Neo assumed was ‘Yang’.

 _‘A blonde bombshell if there ever was one,’_ Neo thought as she looked Yang over as she stretched her arms over her head.

“Alright Ruby, I got this,” Yang said as she stopped in front of the soldier and smiled at him, “so, how are you doing tonight? Seems lonely here.”

“Look sweetheart,” the soldier said, which caused Yang to drop the smile, “I don’t care what you or the pipsqueak has to say, you’re not getting-“

“Shut the fuck up.” It took a lot to unnerve Neo, but Yang’s words, tone, face, and the way she stood (even if it was just her standing there casually with her hands on her hips) just seemed to radiate malice. “I’m not as patient as my sister here, so I’m just going to give it to you straight. This talk will end in only one of two ways.”

Yang started counting her fingers, “Either A: you let us through, we forget you exist, and we go about our merry ways, or B: you continue to bar our way and I kill you. Violently.” Yang leaned forward and clasped her hands behind her. “So what’s it gonna ‘B’?”

“Tough talk, but I already gave my answer,” the soldier said and pointed again, “Get out!”

“Strike one,” Yang said as she straightened up and walked to the wall near the doorway, “better think _real_ hard about what you want.”

“You’re not getting in, no matter what you-“

“Strike two.” Yang grabbed a pipe on the wall and pulled it out as easily as a child would pick a flower, causing a clatter that caused the soldier to back up a step and drew the attention of a couple others. Yang patted the pipe against her hand a couple of times before glaring at the soldier with red eyes. “Last chance.”

 _‘This is where I would just let her through, but I doubt that he’s that smart.’_ Neo was proven right when the soldier drew his handgun and held it up to Yang’s face.

“No this is yours! Get back or get a hole in your-“ he stopped when Yang grabbed the barrel of the gun and crushed it into scrap metal, her eyes now a very bright red.

“Strike three.”

 _‘Oh no, not good.’_ Neo started backing up as Yang grabbed the soldier and stabbed the pipe into his throat. He dropped his useless gun and started to grab at the pipe, trying to scream for help only to get a gurgle as blood poured out of his neck and mouth. And the way Yang grinned as she lifted him off the ground and watched him kick fruitlessly before pulling him further down the pipe was… disturbing to say the least.

 _‘I don’t think I have that much fun killing. Ok, maybe once, but it was a special occasion.’_ Regardless, Neo decided it was time to tell Roman about the new guests, especially since some of the White Fang were now scrambling for weapons. Neo broke the illusion on herself as she ran around the shelf back to where Roman and dodged around Cinder who was saying something about a ‘phase 2’ or something. By that point Neo didn’t care what she was talking about and ran up to Roman.

“Whoa Neo, what’s got you so spooked?” Roman asked when he saw Neo. He was answered when a loud metallic clang resounded through the warehouse, a bit of pipe shot through some sheet metal from where Neo had come from, and Cinder fell backward onto her butt with a scream of fear. “Oh what was that!?” Roman shouted and started to walk to the front when Neo stopped him and made a ‘no way’ gesture with her arms before frantically signing what she saw happened up front.

Cinder though, had a front row seat to what happened that Mercury and Emerald would soon see when they came around the corner to where Cinder was. They were taken aback as well when they saw the White Fang soldier pinned a couple of feet off the ground, struggling against the pipe in his neck as blood poured down his body from his neck, until he finally died with a very moist sounding rattle.

“Oh, that’s nasty,” Mercury said as he took the body in.

“Take this as a lesson!” Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury looked at the entrance and all three of them paled when they saw Yang walking into the warehouse, her fists clenched tightly to her sides and her hair alight. “When I say ‘let me in’ you _LET ME THE FUCK IN!”_

 _‘What’s she doing here!?’_ Cinder thought as her thoughts raced at a thousand miles a minute before coming to a dead stop when she heard several guns power up and looked at a squad of White Fang aiming submachine guns at Yang, who saw them at the same time as Cinder and started walking to them.

“Oh, you all want some too?” she asked loudly and cracked her knuckles, which caused the White Fang to back up slightly. “I’m more than happy to tear you all apart too!”

 _‘Oh no. Nonononono!’_ Cinder looked between Yang and the squad and decided to diffuse the rapidly escalating situation. Thinking fast Cinder formed a fireball in her hand and threw it between the two sides where it exploded on the ground; it was more flash than bang, but it got the job done of stopping the fight from happening.

“Put your guns down now!” Cinder shouted as she got to her feet and stomped over to the White Fang soldiers. Only a few of them had ever seen Cinder before and only then they had seen the calm and collected schemer instead of this roaring fury that had them all petrified. The first soldier she got to had her gun slapped out of her hands before turning to the others. “Unless you want to get us all killed, drop your guns now!” she shouted and rolled her eyes over them all as they one by one dropped their weapons and backed away from both them and her.

“Oh come on, you’re really backing down because of one woman!?” Yang shouted and pounded her fists together, causing her hair to flare up. “I’m warmed up and ready to spill some blood!” A hand landed on Yang’s shoulder and she looked back at Ruby with a small smile on her face.

“That’s enough Yang. I think they all got it,” Ruby said casually. Yang blinked, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath to calm down. Her hair returned to normal and she opened her eyes so Ruby could see they were back to their ‘normal’ lilac.

“Right, I’m ok now,” Yang said with a nod before she grinned and crossed her arms, “At least we’re in right?”

“At least we’re in,” Ruby agreed and moved past Yang, her hand running down the bigger girl’s arm as she did so, and led the way toward Cinder with any White Fang soldiers that were still around quickly went to find something else to do. “This is quite the surprise Cinder. I didn’t expect to see you here, but honestly that saves us a lot of time. I take it things have been going well?”

“Why are you two here?” Cinder asked tensely.

“What, not even a hello for two of your favorite people in the world?” Yang asked with a shrug and a loaded smile.

“Answer the question,” Cinder demanded again.

“I think it should be obvious why we’re here,” Ruby said lightly gesturing around the warehouse with her hands. “Since your group seems to be having problems cracking Vale, we were sent to get the job done if you can’t. _All_ of us.” Cinder’s face paled and she backed up a step.

“You don’t mean..”

“Right now it’s only the two of us, but all four of us are going to be helping with this,” Yang explained while crossing her arms, “and we’re not happy.”

“What do you mean ‘with a pipe’?” Roman asked as he rounded the shelf and saw the victim of Yang’s wrath for the first time. “Oh, that’s what you meant. Will someone clean that up!?”

“Oh look, the man of the hour graces us with his presence,” Yang said loud enough to get Roman’s attention and pointed at him. Roman looked at Yang, then the approaching Ruby, and finally at Neo with a quizzical look. Neo nodded and glanced at the girls cautiously, with Roman returning it and walking to meet the new arrival.

“You’re Roman Torchwick?” Ruby asked with a smile that sent chills down Roman’s spine.

“I am,” he answered.

“Well it’s nice to meet you at last. I’m Ruby and this is my sister Yang,” Ruby gestured at Yang, who gave a two fingered salute, “I’m sure you’ve all about us from Cinder.”

“I’m afraid not, but I can make some good guesses.”

“Oh?” Ruby crossed her arms and tilted her head as Roman pointed at Cinder with his cane.

“Well… given how nervous she is, which only started when you got here, I can guess that you are to her what she is to me. Am I right?”

“Multiply that by twenty and you got it,” Yang commented as she crossed her arms behind her head and smirked at the dirty look Cinder gave her.

“Right, and you pinned poor Larry to a wall back there,” Roman pointed his cane at the dead White Fang soldier that some others were working to get down, “which pretty much says what you're capable of. In both cases, welcome to our little hideout! It’s going to be an empty one soon, but until then you can make yourselves at home… Boss?”

“I like this guy already,” Yang said pointing at Roman as she glanced at Cinder, “he’s smart and knows his place. You know how to pick them, Cinder.”

“I try,” was all Cinder responded with.

“We’ll see if ‘smarts’ will be enough to save him,” Ruby said glancing back at Yang for a moment before looking back at Roman. “We have some concerns about what happened to Tukson.”

“I had nothing to do with that,” Roman said with a frown.

“Don’t play dumb with me,” Ruby dropped her arms to her sides, Yang doing the same behind her.

“To clarify, I _was_ going to take care of him,” Roman said holding up his hands and pointed at Emerald and Mercury, “but _someone_ beat me to the punch. Any complaints about that should be directed to them.” Ruby looked at the pair, who flinched under her gaze, and then at Cinder.

“Is this true?”

“…Yes,” Cinder said with a nod, “they assassinated Tukson without my input. But I already-“

“Quiet,” Ruby interrupted and looked back at Emerald and Mercury, slowly walking over to the pair with Yang. “Now what possessed you two to do that?”

“Well… you see…” Emerald stammered out while trying to find the right words for the situation.

“He was leaving for Vacuo,” Mercury said with a roll of his eyes, “any day now from the looks of things. And didn’t Bla-“ Mercury stopped when Ruby shot a glare at him, her eyes turning black for a split second, “…Kuroshara say it would be a problem if he did leave? We were just cleaning up that mess.”

“So your idea of ‘cleaning up a mess’ was to create an even bigger one by murdering him in broad daylight and then _leaving the body_ in the middle of the store for any random child to find, which it was?” Ruby asked and rubbed her eyes with a sigh of exasperation, “You realize the point of being incognito is to _not_ draw attention right?”

“What, you left him there!?” Cinder asked, her nervousness quickly replaced with anger.

“We made the store look closed,” Mercury defended, “and the cops haven’t found us.”

“Give them time. Police are not morons and you didn’t even lock the door!” Yang said, shaking her head and throwing her arms into the air. “I boggle at how _you_ were the Black to walk away from that fight if this is your idea of a subtle assassination. Marcus wouldn’t have made such a rookie mistake.”

“What did you just say bitch!?”

“Mercury stop!” Emerald shouted holding Mercury back.

“Oh by all means, come at me!” Yang goaded with her eyes turning red, “see how well it ends for you.”

“Enough!” Ruby shouted and glared at Yang to make her stand down. Once she was sure Yang wouldn’t attack she looked at Roman pointedly. “I’m curious Roman, what exactly was _your_ plan for dealing with Tukson. I’ll just punish the one who has the worst plan.”

“Right… well, my plan was pretty simple. I was going to sic Neo on him, since she did call dibs,” Roman said with a shrug.

“What’s a Neo?” Yang asked, which Roman responded to by pointing next to her. Yang looked over and jumped at the sight of the two-tone haired girl that had somehow managed to sneak up to her. “Oh god, I thought that was a dog or something!” Neo blinked a couple of times before she glared and started growling at Yang while bending her parasol to a dangerous degree. Yang blinked at that and grinned widely.

“Careful Neo, remember what she’s capable of,” Roman said. Neo and Yang stared at each other for a moment before Neo turned her nose up at Yang and stalked away from her.

“Aw what’s the matter mutt? You don’t want a biscuit?” Yang called and laughed at how Neo tripped over nothing and glared at her. _‘She’s going to be fun.’_

“So you were the one who was going to take care of Tukson?” Ruby asked when Neo stopped next to Roman and she nodded. “Ok then, why don’t you explain your plan to deal with him. Roman’s life depends on it, so it had better have been a good one.”

“Wait what!? I wasn’t informed about-“ Roman started shouting only to be hushed by Neo placing a finger on his lips. She then put her parasol away, cracked her fingers, and proceeded to explain her masterful plan to take care of Tukson. It was quite the work of art Neo admitted, using a method that Neo hardly ever used before and one that would ultimately not leave a trail back to Roman. The explanation took a couple of minutes and when she was done Neo clasped her hands behind her and smiled as she waited for the expected praise.

“Neo, while I very much appreciate your help and am in awe of your plan, I think you missed a very important part of the explanation.” Neo quirked an eyebrow at Roman, who simply pointed at Ruby and Yang who were looking confused at her.

_‘Oh, right. Sign language.’_

“So at what point did you think we understood any of that?” Yang asked and looked at Roman, “What’s her deal?”

“Right… well, Neo is mute,” Roman explained with Neo helpfully pointing at her mouth and shaking her head.

“Really? Why would-?”

“Because I don’t need her to talk to do what she does best. I can translate so don’t worry. Actually, what was that one word before poison? I don’t think I’ve seen that one before.” Neo rolled her eyes and took out her scroll to quickly type a word and showed it to Roman. “Oh, emetic. I probably could have inferred.”

Neo put a way her scroll while Roman continued, “So the short version goes like this: Neo was going to let him leave.” Ruby opened her mouth but closed it when Roman held up a finger. “Let me finish. Neo would have then followed him onboard the airship disguised as an attendant.”

Neo activated her Semblance to show off the disguise she wasn’t going to use, a blonde haired and green eyed attendant with a uniform she would have changed later to better fit in. Yang let out a low whistle at the sight and started rubbing her chin.

“Like so. She would then wait to give Tukson a drink and spike it with an emetic poison. He rushes to a bathroom and she drowns him there or stabs him to death, use your imagination on that one. Afterwards she exits the airship while it’s airborne, maybe cause a distraction to better implement that, and once she’s back on the ground she’d make her way back to Vale with everybody on the ship looking for a killer in the wrong place.”

“That seems pretty broad for an assassination plan,” Ruby said tilting her head, “Isn’t that risky? What if she gets caught or something goes wrong?”

“She hasn’t been caught before,” Roman said with a shrug as Neo broke her illusion, “and broad plans like that are usually better for last minute adjustments. Assassination is a dirty business after all.” Ruby and Yang stared at him for a moment, which unnerved Roman quite a bit, until Ruby nodded.

“Whether it would have worked or not is a moot point, at the very least she was trying to be stealthy.” Ruby then looked at Emerald and Mercury and said, “No points for guessing who I think has the better plan.”

“Look what should matter is that the job got done, not how,” Mercury said.

“Oh, so it’s ok to just murder people in the street and have cops and Huntsmen crawling over our operations,” Yang said with as much sarcasm as her body could muster, “Good to know.”

“You two seem to have forgotten exactly where we are,” Ruby said as she spread her arms out and spun in a quick circle. “This entire city is enemy territory along with everyone in it. I’d go so far as to say even Roman over there is an enemy who’d sell us all out in a heartbeat if he could.”

“She’d be right if I wasn’t scared to death of all of you” Roman said looking over to where Larry had just gotten pulled off the wall.

“And yet, despite all of that, there’s you two who seem to be going out of your way to make things more difficult for us. The police will be looking for Tukson’s killer and I wouldn’t be surprised if you two didn’t bother to cover your hands. Do you even care what would happen to you all if Ozpin finds out about you all?”

“I-“ Emerald started to say.

“Now I’d be alright along with Yang, and it’d be troublesome and time consuming to replace Cinder but it can be done.” Ruby started walking to Emerald and Mercury with her eyes turning black as she got closer with Yang slowly circling around them. Mercury backed out of her way and bumped into Yang who grabbed his shoulders. Ruby soon stopped next to Emerald and looked up at her, managing to hide her enjoyment of the woman’s fear. “You two though… are completely expendable.”

“Ruby, there’s no need to punish anyone,” Cinder said walking over to Ruby, “I’ve already made sure that-“

“Yang, if she talks again shut her up.”

“Got it,” Yang said glancing at Cinder with a toothy grin.

“Look we were just trying to help,” Emerald said as Ruby crossed her arms and looked around the warehouse, “and Cinder already scolded us.” Ruby looked back at Emerald just as rose petals started flying around her until she was completely obscured from view. They then disappeared and Emerald found herself facing Ruby in her true form, looking oddly calm and ignoring the surprised gasps from those who haven’t seen her like this before.

“We… already said it won’t happen again,” Emerald finished and felt her body refusing to move at all as Ruby moved closer to her and put her hands on her shoulders.

“No, it won’t,” Ruby said and wrapped her hands around Emerald’s neck to strangle her. Instinctually Emerald grabbed at the Grimm’s hands to pry them off only to find the grip too strong and was pushed onto her back with Ruby on top of her with a gradually tightening grip.

“Em!” Mercury shouted and tried to run forward only for Yang to grab his arm and wrench it into an uncomfortable position outward, forcing him to kneel from the pressure on his elbow threatening to snap it backwards.

“Calm down, you’ll get your turn in a second. Just watch for now,” Yang said as she gripped Mercury’s wrist harder and put more pressure on his elbow. Mercury groaned from the pain but managed to keep an eye open to watch Emerald struggle to push and kick Ruby off of her. Her movements were getting less pronounced as the seconds ticked by and her wheeze’s grew gradually quieter.

“Ruby stop!” Cinder shouted and ran to Ruby, shooting a glance at Roman who simply shook his head with wide eyes, and stopped next to her. Cinder grabbed Ruby’s head and tried to get her to look at her, but the Grimm was as solid as a rock and focused only on Emerald who was starting to tear up. “I understand you’re upset, but we need them for the plan! If you kill her, we’d be set back too-“

“Get replacements,” Ruby replied coldly and tightened her grip, grinning just a little as Emerald’s struggles became less pronounced, “Roman’s dog should suffice I’d say.”

“It’s not the same and you know it!” Cinder let go and started furiously scratching at her head to think of something. _‘I’ve never had to talk her down from killing before! Dammit, I can only think of one thing that might work!’_ After taking a breath Cinder shouted, “It’s my fault they did what they did!”

Ruby glanced at Cinder, which was a good sign so she continued. “I don’t know how they got that address, but I’m sure if I had been paying more attention to them they wouldn’t have done anything. So if you’re going to punish someone then punish me!” Ruby raised an eyebrow and Cinder was sure she heard Yang chuckle behind her. “I’ll take responsibility for what they did, just stop-“

Ruby slackened her grip enough for Emerald to breathe, which she did deeply and raspily. She then found herself getting pulled up by her neck and looking into Ruby’s eyes. “Cinder just bought your lives back,” she said, running the thumb of her Grimm arm along Emerald’s neck, “so be thankful for that. Don’t put me in this situation again, because this was a one-time thing.”

Ruby let go of Emerald and got off her to leave her coughing and breathing heavily on the ground. Yang let go of Mercury and left him massaging his arm to walk next to a shocked Cinder and put her arm around her shoulders. “Don’t worry Cinder, we’ll be gentle with you. You _are_ important after all,” Yang said and started leading Cinder away, the latter giving Emerald a threatening glare that she hoped gave the thousands of messages she wanted to give. Yang gave a low whistle when she saw a lineup of vehicles and whispered, “I like the looks of those motorcycles.”

“Roman,” Ruby said and turned to Roman, who jumped at attention, “My sister and I will be staying in Vale for the foreseeable future as Huntresses. We’ll need weapons to better fit in, so I hope you can provide us with such. Can you?”

“Uh, sure,” Roman answered with a nod and swept a hand around the warehouse, “I got weapon parts lying around all over, so have at it. If you need anything else just ask and I’ll get it for you.”

“Good, and anything Cinder told you still stands.” Ruby turned and followed Yang and Cinder with the last thing Roman heard from her being a small chuckle when she saw the pipe still embedded in the wall.

“Creepy,” Roman commented as Ruby disappeared around the wall and looked at the nearby Bullhead and some White Fang milling around near it. “What are you all looking at! We gotta move this stuff now, so get on it!” The soldiers jumped at Roman’s voice and sprang to work while he started walking back to his map with Neo. After a few steps Neo tugged on his sleeve and tilted her head at him when he looked. “You just help me move this stuff for now. We also have that recruitment thing to go to once we get those ‘special presents.’ It’s going to be a long week for us.”

Neo nodded and went to see to her tasks while Roman went back to his planning table, leaving Emerald and Mercury on the floor to quietly shake off their quick brush with death.


	4. Meeting the new transfers

“You did not!”

“Oh I absolutely did!” Weiss answered with a laugh. The flight to Vale was still ongoing and would be for a couple more days, to Weiss’ dismay. Blake had to be the one to break it to the Heiress that the world was, in fact, very big and it takes a while to get anywhere even by airship. Shut in or not, Blake was still baffled at Weiss’ lack of knowledge on that front. With nothing better to do for the flight the two girls stole a table from one of the nearby booths along with a myriad of snacks and drinks. All the caffeine from the tea and coffee can’t be good, but Blake figured they’d probably be lagged anyway so it wouldn’t hurt.

The current conversation came about from the drive to stave off sleep. Despite her misgivings about her father Weiss was more than happy to talk about her family, especially her siblings. “I can’t imagine your brother was particularly happy about that,” Blake said, shaking her head.

“Oh he was absolutely livid,” Weiss said with another laugh, “and he was like that for a whole week afterwards! He must have looked all over the manor before he finally went to Klein for help. I felt bad afterwards, Klein has a talent for scolding when he needs to, but Whitley looked so cute pouting and holding that toy walrus. I wish I had taken a picture then.”

“I wish you had too. I could probably live happily for a few years on the money I’d get selling that.” Weiss leveled a glare at Blake, who simply smirked back while drinking from her tea cup. Blake looked outside at the night sky, not really able to see anything beyond the ship’s wing and the shattered moon, and looked back at Weiss as she leaned forward with a thoughtful look.

“You know, we talked a lot about my family, but I don’t think you’ve talked about yours,” Weiss said. The mention of Blake’s family caused her to stiffen up and her mind to blank slightly, as well as hoping that her now exposed ribbon didn’t move on its own. “What are they like?”

“I… I don’t like talking about my family,” Blake said with a sigh as she looked down into her tea cup. _‘I need more tea. Could I use that as an excuse to get away or-?’_

“Why? Do you not like them?” Weiss asked sitting up straight again. Her eyes sharpened at the way Blake flinched at the question and tried to look everywhere but at Weiss. Weiss sat in silence, watching her teammate fidget for a minute before she finally sighed and looked up at Weiss.

“It’s more like… I hope they don’t like _me,_ ” she said and set her cup down on the table.

“What, why would you want that?”

“I had a bad argument the last time I saw them, an argument I absolutely was on the wrong side of, and I pretty much cut them out of my life since then.” Blake looked down at her hands, rebound in clean bandages she had taken from the ship’s first-aid kits, and tugged on her fingers in turn. “It’s been about five years since I’ve seen them. They probably hate me and never want to hear from me again.”

“How do you know that?” Blake looked up at Weiss’ question, “Have you tried calling them and they said that, or is that just your own assumptions?”

“I…” Blake stammered, shocked at how effortlessly Weiss had cut through her arguments, and shook her head after a moment. “Even if I did want to talk to them, I don’t know where they are. So it’d be impossible to find them on the CCT network.” All a lie. Blake had learned through the grapevine that her Father had become Chieftain of Menagerie not that long ago and he and her mother were now living in the Chieftain’s manor. Menagerie might not have a CCT tower of its own but it was still connected to the Mistral network and more or less easy to reach.

 _‘But I can’t,’_ Blake thought and clenched a fist under the table, _‘after everything I’ve done, how could I? They don’t need someone like me in their lives again. Just let them be happy.’_

“It can’t be that hard,” Weiss said unaware of Blake’s inner turmoil, “the operators should be able to find them with just their name and-“

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” Blake interrupted, catching Weiss off guard with how cold she sounded. A moment of stunned silence went by and Weiss nodded and looked out the window, which Blake was silently thankful for.

“What do you think Beacon Academy is like?” Weiss asked after a minute of silence, “I’ve seen pictures and read as much as I could in the last couple of days, but it’s probably so much more majestic in person don’t you agree?”

“I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been,” Blake answered looking out of the window as well, “But it’s a school for Huntsmen, the warriors who protect the world and fight for what’s right. I think that says a lot about what kind of a place that is.”

“True. My sister is a Atlas Specialist, one of the best, and I’ve seen Atlas Academy once or twice. If Beacon is anything like that, then I’m sure even the students there are utter professionals. Facing down the monsters that would love nothing more than to end humanity, traveling the world and seeing the sights, it sounds so romantic.”

“…Romantic?” Blake asked and raised an eyebrow at the heiress.

“What, is it not?”

“…I wouldn’t know. Either way, I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.”

* * *

_Things weren’t going too well for Team STRQ. Summer gripped her sword tightly as she observed the situation she was in. Their foe was a tough one, even discounting the mech that Taiyang had managed to beat at great cost to his Aura. Summer and Raven were more than enough to deal with him at the moment, though Qrow’s occasional potshots while he was fighting off henchmen certainly helped._

_Summer thought over her choices, the fact that Taiyang still needed to heal after his unsavory beating and that Qrow needed to focus on the Dust thieves, and looked at Raven who looked back at her with a bored expression._

_“Are you going to play or not?” she asked._

“Huh?” Summer said looking up from her cards at Raven, who had set her hand down to rest her head in a hand.

“You’ve been staring at your cards for a while now,” Raven said and pointed at Summer’s hand, “so are you going to play or not?”

“I’m thinking Raven!” Summer growled out and looked back at her hand and then at the board in the middle of the table. The library at Beacon usually had quite a bit of students in it, though if you got lucky on a weekend you could find a good table to get some good reading done or, in STRQ’s case today, play a board game. Summer was adamant about using this one to tighten the team’s dynamic in a fight without actually having to risk life or limb. Whether it actually helped them improve was up for debate, but it was still fun to do when they had time.

Summer took in the Villain’s stats for this round: health, speed, attack and defense, the card deck denoting the Villain’s next action, and especially the Fury counter at the top of the board. After a moment of pondering Summer finally took a card from her hand and set it on the board.

“I’ll play Flowering Strike and tap my Semblance for a speed boost,” Summer said and looked down at her scroll, tapping an icon on it to denote her spent Semblance, and nodded, “and that’ll be my action.”

“Finally,” Raven said rolling her eyes and picking up her hand, “I’ll help you out again and I’ll play-“

“Raven, if you play a card with a lower speed than mine, I will murder you in real life,” Summer interrupted. The girls shared a look for a moment and Raven moved her fingers off a card onto another that she set down next to Summer’s.

“Glancing Blow it is then,” Raven said with a sigh, “it doesn’t do much damage though.”

“It’ll be fine.”

Raven shrugged and pointed at Qrow. “You want in on this brother? I still have my Semblance ready to go so I can bring you in.”

“I’m fine thanks,” Qrow answered shaking his head, “and I’m trying to clear these henchmen out anyway.”

“Fine. Why does my Semblance need to be so situational in combat?” Raven asked while shaking her head. “Well whatever, I guess that’s it for me then.”

“Healing,” Taiyang said, looking just as miserable as he sounded from where he buried his head in his arms and lifted his head enough to discard and redraw a card, tapped his scroll to add a point of Aura to his health, and buried his head back into his arms.

“It’s not that bad Tai, you did take down that mech for us,” Summer said and leaned across the table to pat Taiyang’s back reassuringly.

“I’ve never had such a bad run of luck,” Taiyang murmured through his arms, “usually Qrow has that kind of luck.”

“Very funny,” Qrow said rolling his eyes and putting down a card, “and like I said I’m attacking these henchmen.”

“Ok then,” Summer said and took the Villain’s top card, a subtle card, and flipped it after a quick count to three. She let out a small breath when she saw it didn’t have any really debilitating effects and started with the speed calculations along with Raven’s help. “And… beat him out by one point! And that means he takes… seven damage. Right?”

“Just about and it also means you are…” Raven said and moved Summer’s player piece to the end of the Player Fury line, “here. So let’s just get that turn out of the way yeah?” Summer stared at where her piece was for a second before she jumped to her feet and held her arms over her head.

“Yes! Eat shit, suck-haver!” Summer shouted and pointed derisively at the Villain token, “Feel my wrath again!” Summer then picked up her Ultimate card and threw it onto the board, giggling maniacally the whole time. “Cower in fear as I tear your children from your arms and give them better lives than you could ever hope to give them!”

“Ahem!” Summer stopped her victory celebration and looked at the next table where Team JNPR was studying, or at least that was the plan before Nora fell asleep in a biology textbook and Jaune lost himself in the world of comic books. Ren was glaring at Summer and gestured around them to remind her that she was in a library and, after a moment of awkward standing, she sat back down and cleared her throat.

“Let’s… let’s just tally the damage,” She said and started doing just that with Raven. While they got ready for the next round JNPR returned to their studies, Ren doing double duty for Nora by taking easy to read notes for her later and Pyrrha basically forcing Jaune to study by taking his comic away. He didn’t say anything when she then put it down open next to her own studies and started reading it.

“So I’m Active now right?” Raven asked once everything was done and cards were upgraded as necessary and got a nod from Summer. “Nice, now what do I have here?”

“Sup losers!” Most of the assembled group looked at Sun followed by a trio of boys as he walked over waving and stopped at STRQ’s table. “I thought I heard Summer shouting, and look who it is. How’s it hanging?”

“I didn’t shout that loud,” Summer protested.

“It was pretty loud,” Qrow replied.

“Shut up Qrow.”

“Hey Sun,” Taiyang said, giving a small wave to the Faunus without lifting his head up.

“Why are you so dead?” Sun asked.

“Long story.”

“Well whatever. I’m glad I found you guys anyway because I wanted to introduce you to my team. I wanted to do it the other day, but you had that wicked food fight so…”

“I was wondering about the losers behind you,” Raven said and set a card down.

“Maybe, but they’re all good guys once you get past that.”

“Thanks man, really,” one of them said with a shake his head, “ignoring him, the name’s Sage. Thanks for putting up with our leader for the last little while.”

“He’s good for sandwich runs at least,” Qrow said and played a card against another henchman.

“What!?” The boy with red hair shouted, earning another shush from Ren that was ignored, “Sun never does that for us! Why don’t you do that for us!?”

“Because I was forced into the role Scarlet!” Sun growled out while glaring at Scarlet.

“That’s no excuse!”

“Ignore them, they’re dumb sometimes,” the last one with blue hair said waving a hand at Sun and Scarlet as he walked up to Summer. “So, what’s your name?”

“Uh… Summer. I’ll help you out Qrow,” Summer said and set a card down next to Qrow’s.

“Well, I’m Neptune. Can I just say that your name certainly matches your beauty; just like a summer rose.”

“Dude, can you believe this!?” Jaune muttered at the sight of Neptune’s flashy smile and looked at Nora, who was still asleep and muttering about molten sugar.

“Wow, never heard _that_ one before,” Summer said deadpan and rolled her eyes as Raven flipped the Villain’s card and started tallying the results. “Look Neptune, you at least seem like an alright guy, but I’m not interested. At all.”

“O-oh, ok,” Neptune stammered with a couple of blinks and looked at Raven, “So-“

“You even think about flirting with me and I’ll wrap your goggles around your intestines and tie them as tight as they’ll go,” Raven said flatly and glared at Neptune.

“Message received on both counts!” Neptune said as he backed away from the table with his hands up. Once he was a safe distance away he put his hands down, “But in all seriousness I’ve heard nothing but good things about you all. The way Sun talked about it you guys were awesome to see at that dock fight the other week.”

“What?” Taiyang asked, lifting his head up.

“Sun…” Summer growled out.

“It was a slip up! I swear they won’t say anything else about that, right?” Sun said quickly and looked at each member of his team in turn ending at Neptune.

“Dude, I said we got it,” Neptune said with a placating nod, “and anyway, aren’t libraries supposed to be for studying?”

“Thank you!” Ren said from his seat, which woke up Nora who looked around the room groggily.

“So what’s that about the docks?” Jaune asked just as he was about to stand up.

“None of your business Jaune, get back to studying!” Summer said pointing at Jaune, who sat back down slowly and sighed looking down at the textbook.

“It’s boring though.”

“Stop being a nerd Neptune, seriously,” Sun said, moving next to Neptune.

“Hey hey, intellectual! We talked about this!” Neptune said and poked Sun’s chest.

“An intellectual with bright blue hair? That’d be a sight to see,” Raven said as she drew a card and sighed as she added it to her hand.

“Hey, I am one! You got something against blue hair?”

“Nah, it just means certain things where we come from,” Qrow replied.

“And what would that be?” Scarlet asked.

“Daddy will pay the ransom,” Raven answered. Neptune stood in shocked silence while everyone stared at Raven quietly until Pyrrha, of all people, started laughing quietly and buried her head in her arms before she could laugh any louder. “Why is _she_ the one who laughs at that?”

“You’re surprised?” Summer asked. Her scroll buzzed on the table and she picked it up to check her messages, sighing and shaking her head when she saw it. “It’s Velvet again,” she muttered and started typing out a reply. “Fuck off, I’m busy… and send. I don’t have time for this.”

“What’s she talking about?” Sun asked as he leaned next to Summer.

“It’s nothing, she’s just bugging me about doing stuff,” Summer replied while rubbing her eyes. Her scroll buzzed again and Summer checked it again with an exasperated sigh. “Goddammit, fine! Come by our dorm later if it’ll ease your mind, just stop bothering me.” Summer sent a text saying as much and set her scroll on the table to continue the game. “I’m just going to ignore anything else from her.”

“What’s going on?” Jaune asked having abandoned his studies to stand next to STRQ’s table.

“Nothing that concerns you Jaune. Again. Leave it alone.”

“But-“

“Do we need to have the ‘dead weight’ conversation again Jaune?”

“Fine, I can take a hint. So what is this game anyway?”

“I was actually wondering myself,” Scarlet said, poking his head over Sun’s shoulder.

“If you all will shut up while we play, you can watch,” Summer said shaking her head, “So what’s next Raven?”

“So much for a quiet study session,” Ren lamented shaking his head as he watched Pyrrha get up to watch the game as well.

“Huh?” Nora asked groggily.

“I said-“

“Can we get some soda Ren?”

“…Only if you’re good Nora.”

“Kay.”

* * *

Later in the day when the sun was just beginning to set, both Team STRQ and JNPR were walking back to their dorms. “Sun’s team seems alright,” Jaune said after they spent the walk in silence, “What do you guys think?”

“They… certainly have style,” Pyrrha said carefully.

“I like Scarlet’s coat!” Nora added.

“Hate Neptune, the other two didn’t make an impression,” Raven said while hunched over slightly to match her brother.

“That’s just a bad first impression, you’ll get used to him,” Taiyang said as he pointed at himself with his thumb, “I mean you had a bad first impression of me, and now we’re thick as thieves right?”

“…Yeah, sure.”

“Like them or not, we’ll be stuck with them for a while Rae,” Qrow said putting a hand on Raven’s shoulder, “so at least try to tolerate them ok?”

“Oh I’m good at tolerating people. I’ve been doing that with JNPR since they first showed up.”

“Hey!” Jaune protested.

“You know what you did! I don’t forget betrayal that easily.” The teams rounded the corner to their hallway and Raven and Summer narrowed their eyes at a certain Rabbit Faunus standing in front of their door. Velvet met their gaze and pushed off the wall and started walking to them. “And look who it is.”

“Yup,” Summer said with a nod and looked back at Taiyang, “Tai, if you will.”

“Sure thing,” he replied and stepped ahead of the group.

“Hi guys, I was wondering where you were,” Velvet said waving at Taiyang, “So can we- GAH!” Velvet suddenly found herself foisted onto Taiyang’s shoulder and carried down the hallway. She pounded her fists on Taiyang’s back and kicked her feet in the air while shouting, “Let go of me! Where are you taking me!?”

“Our room so we can talk,” Taiyang answered as he stopped in front of STRQ’s door, opened it, and walked inside with Qrow and Raven right behind him. JNPR watched in bafflement as Summer stood in the doorway looking at them with her hand on the knob.

“Begone,” she said simply and closed it.

“Well alright then,” Nora said before she turned and entered her own dorm.

“Should we be worried about all that?” Ren asked as he looked between his teammates and the door.

“I don’t see why. They’ve handled some pretty big things right?” Jaune asked with a shrug, “If they really needed our help, they’d ask right?”

“I… guess you’re right,” Pyrrha said and nodded slowly. “In that case, we should leave them be. Midterms are coming up and we should get as much studying as we can.”

“Oh crap, I forgot about those!”

Only a few feet away from Jaune’s troubles Velvet was tossed onto Raven’s bed and sprang to her feet as Summer locked the door. “What the heck guys!?” Velvet shouted.

“Yeah, why _my_ bed?” Raven asked angrily and crossed her arms.

“Don’t be a baby Raven, and you were about to blab in front of the first years again Velvet,” Summer explained as she crossed her arms. “At least in here we have some privacy. So why have you been wanting to bug us lately?”

“You all know why!” Velvet shouted and closed her eyes and took a deep breath with her hand on her chest before she continued. “It’s been two weeks since what happened at the docks and it just feels like everyone has just forgotten about it. The police and Professor Ozpin, it’s just bugging me really bad especially considering what happened. If the White Fang is still out there, then-“

“We should do something about them?” Summer asked and sat down on Taiyang’s bed. Velvet nodded and Summer shook her head. “Trust me Velvet, I would love nothing more than to get back on this case, but simple logistics are getting in our way.”

“Huh?”

“We can’t do shit if we don’t know shit,” Raven simplified as she dragged a chair out and sat backwards on it with her arms on the backrest, “Why do you think we waited until we had a solid enough lead before calling you guys?”

“I thought you called us because… never mind. So if that’s all, why didn’t you say so? I might know something that will help out on that.”

“Because we didn’t know you knew something,” Qrow said and pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh.

“And we got our asses kicked pretty hard. I would think a break was well deserved,” Taiyang said with a shrug. “So what do you have in mind?”

“Well… can you keep this a secret?” Velvet asked.

“Please, it’s us. You have to ask?”

“Right. Well, I knew a guy who was in the White Fang.”

“You ‘knew’ a guy? What happened?” Summer asked while clasping her hands together and leaning forward.

“He’s… he’s dead,” Velvet replied sadly, her ears drooping a little as she spoke, “Murdered in the middle of his book store from the sounds of it.”

“That’s suspicious and sounds like the Fang are cleaning house,” Qrow said and shared a glance with Raven before looking back at Velvet. “So how did you find out he was White Fang? I’d think that’d be something that would be kept under the lid.”

“He saw I was a Faunus and made assumptions I guess. He was actually a pretty decent guy besides that.”

“Nice or even decent guys don’t last long in groups like the Fang,” Raven commented while scratching her cheek, “he probably wanted out and got killed for it. I’d bet hard Lien on that.”

“Agreed,” Velvet said with a sad nod and started rubbing an arm. “He told me a good couple of things regardless. Apparently the White Fang hold regular meetings where they recruit and distribute orders. If I can sneak into one of these I might get some insight into what they’re doing.”

“That sounds unsafe. Are you sure you can do it?” Summer asked.

“We fight monsters for a living, everything we do is unsafe. Even a simple food fight can be dangerous.”

“None of us are going to live that down for a while are we?” Taiyang asked.

“Probably not,” Raven answered.

“Alright then.” Everyone looked at Summer as she stood up and crossed her arms. “There are a couple of other things I wanted to look into as well, so we can tackle those while you’re doing that. When are those meetings?” Velvet answered with only silence and a blank stare. “Right. Figure out when that’ll be and get back to us.”

“Of course. Um… thanks for being understanding and all that, especially since I kind of barged in with all of this.”

“It’s fine Vel,” Taiyang said with a shrug, “Just be careful when you start asking around about this. It’s possible the Fang will have an APB out on all of us after the stomping we gave them.”

“I would be surprised if they didn’t. Don’t worry, I’ll be careful; it’s not my first rodeo after all.”

“That actually brings up something else I wanted you to pass along to your team,” Summer said and looked Velvet in the eye. “After this I don’t want you guys to get involved in this anymore unless I ask otherwise.”

“What, why!? This is just as much our fight as it is yours!” Velvet shouted with clenched fists.

“Because I’m concerned about your safety!” Summer uncrossed her arms as she started pacing the room. “I keep going over what happened that night at the docks and the thousands of ways it could have gone wrong. What if Penny had never shown up, what if we weren’t on top of our game, just all kinds of what ifs that won’t leave me alone and all of them end the same way: one or all of us dead, and I just can’t accept that.”

“Oh what crap! We all knew what we were getting into when we agreed to this.”

“So you expected a Creature of Grimm like that to show up out of nowhere and wreck shop!?”

“ _None_ of us did!” Velvet and Summer stared at each other while Taiyang and Qrow stood around awkwardly and Raven sat wallowing in boredom. Soon Velvet sighed and said, “I get what you’re saying Summer and I disagree with it, but now isn’t the time to have this discussion. I’ll let you argue with Coco about it, ok?”

“…Fine. Call us when you have the time ok?”

“Sure thing, but it may take a while so don’t wait on pins and needles for me.” Summer nodded and watched as Velvet walked to the door and grabbed the knob. After a moment of quietly staring at the door she looked back at Summer with a small smile. “Thanks for hearing me out on this. I’m sorry if I was pushy, but-“

“Again, we get it,” Taiyang interrupted with a grin and two fingered salute, “just be safe ok? That’s all we want.” Velvet nodded and opened the door, giving the team a small wave as she walked out and let the door shut behind her. Once they were alone Summer found herself the center of attention as she walked to one of the study desks near the door. “So let me guess, ‘minimizing risk’ right?” Taiyang asked.

“Yes, and I’m sure you all know why,” Summer replied while gripping the head of a chair tightly.

“I gotta agree with Velvet on that though,” Qrow said, shaking his head, “it’s not exactly fair to limit their involvement just because Hierophant showed up out of nowhere once.”

“It would be so much easier if we could explain the Generals to them, but orders are orders as it stands.” Summer let go of the chair and turned back to her team, her hands unconsciously moving to knead the hem of her cloak. “They’re bound to come after us harder now that we managed to beat one of them. I just don’t want people to get caught in the crossfire, you know?”

“That actually has been bugging me for a while,” Raven said turning around in her chair and leaning backwards on it so she was balancing on two legs, “why would they be coming to Vale personally several times over and why would they work with people like Torchwick?”

“They don’t exactly seem like the type to get along with people,” Qrow agreed, “and Dust has still been getting stolen in the last two weeks.”

“I’m starting to think something big is going on behind the scenes Sum,” Taiyang said worriedly, “and that not even Oz has the full picture. We may have bitten off more than we can chew this time.”

“Too late to worry about that now,” Summer said with a sigh. “The only thing we can do is keep moving forward. Hopefully we’ll find that magic exit as long as we keep doing that.” Her team nodded in unison and they all started getting ready for bed, which was when Summer had a realization as she looked over the desks. “Where’s my board game?”

“I thought you had it,” Qrow said with his hands resting on the clasp of his cape.

“I thought one of you had it!”

“Well I thought Jaune had it,” Taiyang said and, in the lull of the conversation, they had the same realization that was expressed with Raven sighing and pinching her nose.

“It’s still in the library isn’t it?” She asked with a shake of her head, “And that means we’ll be in trouble with Professor Plum _again._ ”

“There’s still half an hour before the library closes,” Summer said lifting her hood over her head and moving to the door, “I can get there and grab it before then if I hurry.”

“Godspeed,” Raven said with a wave and watched as Summer opened the door and jogged out into the hallway.

Only to stop short when she saw a small group of Haven students walking the halls, who in turn stopped when they saw Summer. “Whoa, easy running in the halls,” the one with gray hair and the only boy in the group said with a smirk, “you could hurt someone like that.”

 _‘Smarmy douchebag,’_ Summer thought at the immediate bad first impression, thought she said aloud, “I guess, but I wouldn’t have hit you anyway. You’re transfer students right?”

“From Haven Academy,” the woman in the back said and walked to the front with Gray-hair and his Green haired companion moving out of the way to let her.

“Whoa!” Summer accidentally let out and flinched when she saw the woman’s face, crisscrossed with scars of varying lengths and the deepest ones being one running diagonally from above her right eye down across her nose to below her left eye and one on her left cheek. After the moment of taking in the scars Summer realized what she was doing and fidgeted a little in place.

“There’s no need for that,” the woman said as she ran a thumb across a scar with a bitter look, “I’m well aware of my… complexion, as it were. A close encounter with a Creature of Grimm.”

“Must have been a nasty son of a bitch huh?” The woman nodded, looking more bitter as she did so, and Summer crossed her arms with a nod. “Well, the important thing is that you’re alive. My Dad always used to say ‘a scar earned is a lesson learned’.”

“And we have _a lot_ of lessons to learn,” the woman said sparing a glance at the green haired girl to her left, who fidgeted with a guilty look, “but I think the most immediate one is where our dorm room is. We may be a little lost.”

“You’re in the wrong building then. If you’re Haven students your room will be in the East Dorm which… well, it’s to the East. Just look for others wearing your school uniform and I’m sure you’ll find it.”

“Thank you,” the woman nodded while her teammates walked past Summer and the open door where Raven was standing to watch the conversation. “Maybe we’ll see each other again for the festival?”

“Maybe,” Summer replied as she _really_ looked the woman over as she walked past her to follow her teammates. She had barely made it to STRQ’s door when Raven shot a hand out and grabbed the woman’s arm stopping her in her tracks.

“Have we met before?” Raven asked, red eyes meeting orange and not noticing the woman’s team stopping to look at her with worried looks. After a moment of staring at each other the woman shook her head.

“No, we haven’t. I certainly would remember meeting someone as… memorable as you.” They continued to stare at each other for another moment until Raven let go of her arm and she resumed her walk.

“Guess you just have one of those faces,” Raven said and pointed at the two further down the hallway. “You two be good for your chaperone ok?” That caused the woman to trip on nothing and look back at Raven angrily.

“Excuse you, I’m a student too!” she said.

“Are you?” Raven asked and smirked at how the woman clenched her fists together.

“Leave her alone Raven,” Summer chided shaking her head, “It’s perfectly normal for some students to be held back a year.”

“Yeah but that’s usually a year, not ten,” Raven replied and chuckled as the woman tried to sputter out a response. She soon gave up and settled on storming down the hallway past her teammates, who followed after trying to match her pace without running. Once they disappeared around the corner Raven looked back at Summer and said, “The library’s still closing.”

“Shit!” Summer shouted and took off running down the hallway, leaving behind a cackling Raven who soon walked back into the dorm and shut the door.

Further down the hallway Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury were walking further down the hallway and just reached the stairs. “So that’s the famous ‘White cloaked Huntress’. She doesn’t seem impressive,” Mercury said shaking his head as they walked downstairs.

“Most people aren’t until you see them in a fight. Case in point, you,” Emerald replied pointing at Mercury and looked back at Cinder. “And aren’t they the same people from Mistral? Should we tell Ruby about this?”

“Why?” Cinder said shaking her head angrily, “the big, bad, _almighty_ High General of the Grimm should already know everything there is to know about this school.”

“Bitter pettiness doesn’t suit you boss,” Mercury said.

“Shut up!” Cinder shot a glare at Mercury, who responded by silently moving his hand across his mouth as if he was zipping it up, and continued on her way. “Ruby is bound to run into her sooner or later, so we’ll talk to her about it then.”

“And you’re sure she’ll be alright here?” Emerald asked, “She never seemed to be the type to know about human social norms.”

“She’ll be fine. What’s the worst she could get into. And no, don’t actually answer that.”

* * *

“Ok, I’ll admit it, I’m lost.” Ruby sighed and rubbed her eyes as she continued walking down the hallway. When she was done she looked down at her Haven uniform with her red cloak still on her shoulders and tapped one of her uniform shoes against the floor. _‘At least the Glamour is still holding. I guess Yang was right about the uniform being no strain at all. Maybe I should call her to ask her where the dorm is?’_ Ruby thought it over and shook her head. _‘No, she’ll hold it over my head for the rest of my time here. I’ll just have to find it myself.’_

Ruby reached an intersection and was now absolutely sure she wasn’t anywhere close to the dorms given the double doors with a placard that said ‘Library’ that was in the hallway to her right. Ruby sighed again and shook her head. “Maybe I should just ask someone. I am supposed to be a transfer student, so it shouldn’t be too odd to ask.” With a plan in mind Ruby turned to walk to the library and ask there when the doors opened.

“Thank you so much for holding onto this Professor Plum! This won’t happen again!” a girl called from inside before she ran out and right into Ruby hard enough to knock her backwards. Ruby had braced herself for the impact that never came since the girl had managed to grab the collar of Ruby’s uniform before she got that far. Ruby swung her arms around a little on realizing she wasn’t falling and got her feet under her again and the girl let go of her. “I’m sorry about that. I really should watch where I’m going.”

“It’s fine, I’m not hurt or anything,” Ruby said brushing off her uniform, “Thank…” she drifted off and her eyes widened when she saw _who_ she had bumped into. None other than the White Cloaked Huntress herself, holding a board game in her arms and looking at Ruby in concern. _‘Of all the people to run into here!’_

“Are you sure you’re ok?” she asked tilting her head.

“Uh, yeah! Yeah, you just… I like your hair?” Ruby said pointing at the streak of silver hair she had.

“Thank you,” she said and ran a few fingers over her hair as she looked Ruby over. “Wait, you’re a Haven student? Aren’t you a little young for that?”

“Maybe, but I’m a prodigy!” Ruby flashed the largest grin she could and gave double V signs at the Huntress. “I’m Ruby, leader of Team RWBY, with a W.”

“Ruby, huh?” The White Cloaked Huntress asked while looking Ruby over again before giving her a soft smile. “Well you’re certainly easier to be around than the last Haven students I met. I’m Summer Rose of Team STRQ.”

“Summer… Rose?” Ruby asked and returned the smile, “I like that name. It just screams ‘warrior’ to me, you know?”

“You’d be the first person to say that to me. So, if you don’t mind me asking, what are you doing at the Library so late?” Ruby’s smile dropped at Summer’s question and she slumped over in defeat.

“I’m lost… badly. I don’t suppose you could help a poor girl out with finding her dorm?” Ruby asked and gave Summer her best puppy dog eyes, which only caused her to laugh at the sight.

“Sure thing Ruby, I can fit one more good deed into my schedule. Do you have your Scroll on you?” Ruby nodded, took out her scroll, and gave it to Summer who flicked it open and scrolled to Ruby’s ID screen. She quickly looked it over before nodding and turning the screen to show Ruby. “Right there under your name is your assigned room. You’re in room 305 of the East dorms. It’s a little out of the way for me, but I’ll show you there so you don’t get lost again ok?”

“Yay! Thanks a bunch Summer!” Ruby cheered as she took her scroll back from Summer and started following after her through the school. She also took a moment to look away with a wide grin. _‘This is perfect! Not only will I find my dorm room, but I also get to pump information out of one of my enemies! At the very least I can learn more about her and her team.’_

“I get the feeling you and Raven would get along well Ruby,” Summer said out of the blue and looked back at a confused Ruby, “if the way you cackle is any indication.”

“Cackle, me? Nah!” Ruby said swaying her upper body from side to side before she picked up speed to walk next to Summer. “So you said you’re on Team STRQ? What are they like?” It was Summer’s turn to look confused and Ruby soon tilted her head at Summer as she stared at her. “Did I say something weird?”

“No, it’s just… refreshing I guess to meet someone who doesn’t know my team by reputation. Well, I guess you can say we’re a Jack of all Trades team, so we’re pretty good at everything. What about yours?”

“The same I guess. So, who’s Raven?”

The conversation continued along those lines all the way to the East dorms, the two brunettes going over any small bits and pieces of their teams: Raven’s endearing abrasiveness, Yang’s odd fascination with low quality puns to annoy people, and everything in between. Summer also pointed out a couple landmarks to Ruby along the way. “Though to be honest, a map would probably serve you better than me,” Summer would admit sheepishly once the pair reached the East dorms and climbed the stairs to the third floor and started down the hallway.

“304… 305, here we are,” Summer said and stopped in front of the dorm room and knocked on it. Summer and Ruby shared a look at the sound of some shuffling from inside and the door was opened by a girl with long blonde hair in a Haven uniform.

“Took you long enough Ruby! Did you get lost or some…” she said and drifted off when she saw Summer, her eyes widening in surprise.

“Hello, you must be Yang,” Summer said as Ruby peeked out from behind her, “And yes, your little sister did get lost. Which is why I’m here.”

“Little…?” Yang said slowly and looked at Ruby, who quickly blinked one eye twice at her, after which she immediately perked up and grinned widely at Summer. “Oh yeah, my adorable little sister! I was just starting to get worried and go looking for her, but now I don’t have to!”

“Hi Yang, sorry about-“ Ruby started to say as she walked out from behind only to be cut off when Yang grabbed her and pulled her into a crushing hug against her chest.

“Oh Ruby! Don’t you ever leave my sight again! Don’t worry, big sis will always protect you now! My most precious and adorable little sister.”

“Too much, too much!” Ruby screamed from her position and started punching Yang’s stomach, which was enough for the blonde to let her go. Ruby glared at Yang as she brushed off her uniform and turned to Summer, who was smiling widely at them.

“You two certainly have a loving relationship,” Summer commented with a laugh.

“A little too much sometimes. All the same thanks for helping me out, it really means a lot.”

“No problem.” Summer looked around the inside of the dorm room and raised an eyebrow, “It’s just you two here?”

“The rest of our team is in transit and will be here in a few days,” Yang answered and crossed her arms, “when they get here we should meet up with your team, have a little tour and maybe show us your room. Does that sound good?”

“We’ll have to see,” Summer said with a shrug, “and speaking of my room, I gotta get back to it. I’ll see you around Ruby.”

“Bye!” Ruby said waving at Summer, who returned it as she walked away. Yang shut the door and turned back to Ruby with a knowing smirk.

“You’ve made a friend already huh?” she asked.

“In a way. Her name is Summer Rose and she’s the leader of Team STRQ,” Ruby explained and moved to look out the window at the moon. “Your twins are on her team as well; Raven and Qrow Branwen. I don’t know much about their last member, but just those three spell trouble.”

“Nice, I can’t wait to see them again,” Yang said and hit her fists together, “and trouble most certainly describes them. Did you see her eyes? You think she’s-?”

“No,” Ruby interrupted.

“You sure?” Yang moved next to Ruby and put her hand on her shoulder, “because if she is-“

“She isn’t. We all made sure about that a long time ago, so she isn’t.” Ruby pulled away from Yang and looked up at her with the most commanding look she could. “So drop it Yang, and don’t talk about this to Queen or the others. They don’t need a distraction that doesn’t exist.”

“Right right, I got it,” Yang held up her hands placatingly and moved to sit on a bed. “So what do we do now that we’re here and everyone else is having fun outside the kingdom?”

“Watch and wait. Despite my misgivings Cinder’s plan is mostly solid. We’ll let her do her thing and provide support where needed. Speaking of, did you get the weapon parts from Torchwick?”

“Oh yeah,” Yang said with a smile and got off the bed before getting down to drag out two duffel bags. Yang handed the one with the red stripe to Ruby before throwing her own over her shoulder and walking to a table. “Everything we need to build the weapons we specified to Torchwick. I’m still bummed about my shotgun, but I should be able to put together something just as good with this.”

“Good. This will probably be an all-nighter for us, so let’s get to it.” Ruby moved to a different table and opened the duffel bag to dig through its contents. “It should be easy to make a scythe with these. Just a simple scythe.” Ruby quirked an eyebrow and pulled out a scope, looking through it for a second before turning it over and over in her hand. “Why is this here?”

“The times have changed Ruby,” Yang said as she started laying out metal pieces on the table, “everything is also a gun now. I guess Torchwick got an idea or something, so just make the scythe a gun too.”

“Guns are cheating, I told you that.” Despite that Ruby grabbed her chin in thought as she set the scope aside and started _really_ looking over the parts she had. Slowly, an idea started forming in her head.


	5. Intermission: Room intrusion

Ruby and Yang were wandering around Beacon, getting the lay of the academy as it were, when they ran across Summer in the courtyard. Naturally they picked up speed to catch her, Ruby faster than Yang, and waved at her to catch her attention.

“Hey Summer,” Ruby said, stopping next to Summer once she had gotten to her with Yang not too far behind, “you look like you’re busy today.”

“Eh, more or less,” Summer said with a shrug, “I just finished feeding the chickens out back, so I’m just trying to figure out what to do for the rest of the day.”

“I’m sorry, chickens?” Yang asked, visibly confused.

“Yeah, we got a big chicken coop out back.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, but it’s relaxing to feed them. You should try it sometime.”

“Maybe some other time,” Ruby said before putting her hand together and pointing at Summer, “So, since you got some free time, do you mind showing us your room?”

“You’re being pretty pushy on that Ruby. Do you really want to see it that bad?”

“Yeah even I think that’s a little weird,” Yang said and crossed her arms, “what’s the deal there?”

“There’s no ‘deal’, I just want to see her room!” Ruby said and thought to herself, _‘And get a good look at my enemies living situation, maybe discover a weakness or two, but she doesn’t need to know that.’_ “So what do you say Summer? Please?”

“Well, I do have to go to my room to get something anyway.” Summer rubbed her chin in thought before shrugging, “Eh, I suppose there’s no harm in showing you my room for a bit. Just don’t get too excited and don’t touch anything. I might be kind, but that doesn’t mean my team will be. Understand?”

“Yes ma’am!” Ruby and Yang said and saluted Summer. She shook her head and silently led them through the campus to her dorm room. When they got inside they ran across the blonde with the footie pajamas (Ruby tried hard not to cringe at the sight of him, but only succeeded in fighting it down to an eye twitch) and a girl with red hair. The boy shouted to try and get Summer’s attention, but only got a polite wave from Summer as she continued on.

 _“Kinda reminds me of someone else huh?”_ Yang asked looking back to take in the silent misery from the pair while the girl tried to comfort the boy.

 _“Shush,”_ Ruby replied even if she silently agreed. Soon the trio were at STRQ’s dorm where Summer unlocked the door and walked inside with Ruby and Yang hanging back to peek through the doorway and spotted Qrow laying on a bed.

“Hey Qrow, don’t mind me grabbing my weapons,” Summer said as she gave Qrow a wave, who lazily waved back before turning the page of a comic he was reading. “Which comic is that by the way?”

“I don’t know, one of your old ones. I’m just enjoying my day off,” he replied.

“I get that feeling. You should at least say hi to the guests who wouldn’t leave me alone by the way.” With that Summer returned to looking for her weapons while Qrow looked up and promptly did a double take when he saw Ruby and Yang. The former dashed over to inspect the makeshift bunk bed while the latter took in the room as a whole with her hands on her hips.

“What the fuck?” Qrow said as he closed the comic and got up to his feet.

“Swear jar,” Summer said, holding York up and started tying it to her belt.

“You’re not seeing this!?” Qrow nearly shouted and pointed at Ruby, “she looks _just like_ you, if a little younger!” He then pointed at Yang and added, “And do I even need to point her out!? Even you should see it!” Summer looked back at Ruby and Yang, who looked back at her, and finished tying her sword to her belt and moved it behind her back.

“You know, I actually did notice that,” Summer said crossing her arms, “I just thought they were fangirls or something.”

“What? How does that make any sense?”

“I noticed that too,” Ruby said, “I guess good style is universal.” Ruby then shrugged and turned back to the bunk bed and asked, “So is this something you came up with yourself Summer?”

“Yeah, we had too much crap and not enough space. I got the top bunk because I’m the leader.” Summer polished her knuckles on her dress proudly before she turned and knelt to dig through a dresser. “Now where did I put Soleil?”

“I never thought about this,” Ruby said, utterly enraptured by the bunk bed and slowly ran a hand up and down one of the posts. “I wonder if we could do this?”

“Stop touching things,” Summer chided without looking back which caused Ruby to jerk her hands away and hold them straight over her head. “Damn, where is it?”

“Characters, am I right?” Yang asked as she smiled at Qrow, who only now managed to tear his eyes off the two cloaked girls and looked at Yang as she moved closer to him and held her hand out. “So you’re Qrow huh? Ruby’s heard nothing but good things about you from Summer. Nice to meet you.”

“Er, yeah. Nice to meet you too,” Qrow said and shook Yang’s hand, flinching just slightly at the blonde’s grip, and shook his hand when the handshake was done. “God you got a grip! You could give Tai a run for his money.”

“I would hope so. I pride myself in my strength, second only to my hair.” Yang smirked and Qrow rolled his eyes just as Summer pounded her fists on the dresser top and stood up.

“Qrow, did you hide my dagger!?” Summer shouted looking at Qrow.

“No. Why would I do that?” Qrow replied.

“Because everyone touches my stuff. If you didn’t hide it, then where is it?”

“I don’t know, I don’t keep track of your stuff. I have a hard enough time keeping track of my own belongings.”

“Ooh, what’s in this closet?” Ruby asked as she approached a closet next to the bunk bed.

“Some of my old weapons, don’t touch it,” Summer answered and shook her head, “Well maybe one of our children hid it. Where’s Rae and Tai?”

“You think I would know? Training maybe, I haven’t seen them since breakfast.” Qrow spotted Ruby starting to open the closet and looked to watch her fully.

“Fine then, I’ll just call Rae and ask-“

“OH NO!” Ruby suddenly shouted followed by a large crash as several weapons fell out of the closet on top of her. Yang looked at where Ruby was lying while Summer simply sighed and gave the flattest look at the girl while Qrow shook his head.

“I told you not to touch it,” she said and moved to the pile with Yang. There she grabbed the shaft of a halberd and lifted it up to lift enough of the pile off Ruby so Yang could pull her out and pick her back up to her feet. Ruby’s head rolled around dazedly until she shook it, blinked a couple of times, and gave a V sign.

“Don’t worry, I’m A-Okay!” she said and shook off Yang’s hands. She started rubbing the back of her head and stuck her tongue out slightly. “All those weapons really caught me off guard.”

“I told you not to touch anything!” Summer scolded, Ruby flinching back as the bigger girl advanced on her and waved a finger in her face, “As you can well see, I have a lot of weapons in there! _Very pointy_ weapons! You’re lucky you weren’t hurt in that!”

“It would take more than that to hurt me,” Ruby whispered looking off to the side.

“I don’t care!”

“You only have yourself to blame for this Summer,” Qrow said, moving past the girls to tap a shoe against the weapons. “Someone was bound to get hurt like this the way you hoard this crap.”

“Every one of those weapons are an extension of my soul Qrow!” Summer said pointing at the pile, “I can’t just get rid of them!” Summer then did a double take at the pile and perked up as she walked over to it. She knelt down and picked up a pair of chained kusarigama and smiled widely. “Oh hey, I was wondering where these two had gone off to!”

“I don’t think I’ve seen those before. Where did those come from?”

“I think I made these when I was… 13 I think?” Summer answered as she looked over the weapons. “I can’t remember why I passed on them though.”

“Kusarigama huh? You don’t look the type to be into that Summer,” Yang said as she tapped the blade of one of the kama.

“Oh, interested huh? Well check this out!” Summer pressed a switch on both of them that transformed them into a pair of submachine guns that she then aimed away from the group horizontally on top of one another. Ruby and Yang let out a ‘Ooh’ at the sight and Summer grinned wider as she started spinning one around on a finger while resting the other on her hip.

“These babies can transform into submachine guns. 9mm with an option of fully automatic or three round burst, and able to chamber any kind of Dust round. Fire and Ice at the same time was a great idea of mine. I even rigged it so they can fire while I’m swinging it around on the chain.”

“Wow, that’s innovative!” Ruby said.

“And dangerous as hell,” Qrow added, shaking his head and stepping back when Summer started spinning one of the weapons around on the chain, Ruby and Yang doing the same. “Maybe that’s why you shelved it?”

“No, I remember getting good enough at the chain shooting that it wasn’t much of a problem. No, it was something-“ the spinning weapon took that moment to clip the side of Summer’s bed, sending it careening in a way that it started wrapping the chain around Summer. She gave a shriek of surprise and fell over when the chain was done tying her up and she rolled onto her back to see Qrow, Ruby, and Yang looking down on her. “I think I just remembered why I shelved them.”

“Yeah, I can tell. Let me help you,” Qrow said as he started to help untie Summer from her linked bondage.

“Those aside, there are a lot of weapons in here,” Ruby said as she picked up a long-pole axe from the pile. “You must fight around a lot huh?”

“It did take me a while to pick a style I was comfortable with, yes,” Summer said as Qrow got her arms free and she pushed herself back onto her feet. “Even then I still try to keep my skills sharp on those fronts.” Qrow handed her the kusarigama and Summer put them on the dresser near the window and sighed. “And there’s one style that I _want_ to learn, but that _somebody_ won’t let me.”

“I’m not teaching you scythe combat,” Qrow said forcefully.

“Scythe?” Ruby asked.

“And why not?” Summer asked, crossing her arms, “the way you swing Harbinger around is so cool and effective! It shouldn’t take-“

“Wanting to learn a weapon style because it’s ‘cool’ is really dumb, especially with scythes. Most people who try to learn end up either cutting off a limb or their heads. So the answer is no.”

“I fight with a scythe,” Ruby said casually and crossed her arms behind her head, “It’s not that hard when you get used to it. It did take a while though.”

“…How do you…?”

“Self-taught.”

“Figures.”

“Well there you go,” Summer said with a smirk, “if someone as young as Ruby can learn to fight with a scythe then so can I.”

“I won’t believe _that_ until I see it, and the answer is still no in any case!”

“Fine then, we’ll settle this the usual way,” Summer said as she turned on her feet and walked to their holo-tv. “A set to 10 fair?”

“Just because you can beat Raven consistently doesn’t mean you’ll beat me.” Qrow shook his head and pulled out his scroll, “but sure, you’re on.”

“We’ll definitely have a lot of fun here Ruby,” Yang said as she moved to sit on one of the beds.

“Oh yeah,” Ruby agreed with a nod and added, “hey can we get in on this when you’re done?”

“Sure thing, just sit down,” Qrow answered.

Summer did not win the set in the end.


	6. Team RWBY

_“We’ll be entering Beacon airspace soon. Will all passengers get ready to disembark.”_

Blake looked up from her book at the announcement and sighed as she marked her place and closed her book. She had woken up not that long ago, having only gotten a few hours of sleep while Weiss was still asleep opposite her. She had decided to get some reading done but had only gotten a few pages in when the announcement put a stop to that. Blake set her book down on the table next to an empty teacup and crumpled snack bags before she looked at the still sleeping heiress she was traveling with.

 _‘Might as well,’_ Blake thought and stood to lean across the table and shake Weiss by the shoulder. Weiss groaned and waved a hand to brush Blake’s away before she sat up and rubbed at her eyes.

“What’s happening?” Weiss asked once she was sufficiently awake.

“We’re almost to Beacon so we have to get ready,” Blake answered and sat back down. Weiss perked up at that and leaned to look outside. “You shouldn’t get your hopes up. We’re just coming up to the academy so we probably can’t see it yet.” Despite her words, Blake couldn’t help but also look outside as well. The clouds outside started to clear as the airship started to descend and the silhouette of Beacon Academy started to show through.

Weiss let out a small gasp of awe at the sight of the Huntsman academy and Blake struggled to not do the same. They both had read about Beacon and seen the odd picture here and there, but the sheer size and scale was something else entirely. The many towers and spires drew the eye along with the arches that connected more than a few of them, but high above them all was the Beacon Tower rising from the middle high over any of its peers.

“So that’s Vale’s CCT tower,” Weiss said as they passed the tower, “It’s smaller than the one in Atlas.”

“Really, that’s the first thing you notice?” Blake asked with a small smirk and enjoyed the small success in making Weiss pout, though she soon forgot that in favor of taking in the academy again. Blake dropped the smirk and looked outside as well. _‘The Vytal Tournament is being held here huh? I’m still not entirely sure about this, but… a shot at freedom is worth taking no matter how small. And I will take it._ ’ Little did Blake know that Weiss was thinking something similar as well underneath her awed expression.

They didn’t have much time to look as the ship touched down on a landing pad and the engines shut down. _“We’ve arrived at Beacon Academy,”_ the pilot said over the intercom, _“all passengers may begin disembarking.”_ Weiss wasted no time in jumping to her feet, grabbing her rapier, and walking down the aisle.

“You’re not even getting your bags?” Blake asked and pointed at the numerous bags that were still with Weiss for the flight.

“I have employees for that. I want to see the academy!” Weiss said simply as she stowed the rapier on her side as she walked. Blake rolled her eyes and lifted her hood over her head before she followed Weiss with her weapon and book in hand. She stowed Gambol Shroud on her back just as she reached the ramp with Weiss, the heiress practically skipping down the ramp while Blake flinched at the sunlight hitting her eyes directly. Walking down the ramp Blake could feel the fatigue weighing down on her even after the few hours of sleep she had gotten. She groaned as she rubbed her forehead to try and assuage the headache that suddenly made itself known.

“I need more sleep,” Blake said and stopped next to Weiss at the bottom of the ramp.

“Well can you stay awake long enough for us to look around the school and get our bearings?” Weiss asked looking over at Blake and then up the ramp when she heard a clank. At the top were a couple of black suits trying to wheel a luggage rack with her suitcases down the ramp, one of them accidentally knocking one out by hitting the side of the doorway. “Careful with those! Some of them have Dust in them!”

“This isn’t the worst I’ve felt in my life,” Blake finally replied stifling a yawn and shaking her head, “I can stay awake a little longer.” Weiss nodded in satisfaction and Blake went back to reading while Weiss waited for her luggage to come down and led the way into the academy proper once it joined them. Despite Blake’s attempts otherwise, she was just as awestruck as Weiss as they walked off the landing pad onto the promenade proper though she was more interested in the students surrounding her rather than the architecture of the academy like Weiss.

This is what Blake expected of a Huntsman academy in the middle of a Vytal Festival, with people from all over the world intermingling and talking like nothing out of the ordinary was going on. From a girl from Vacuo enthralling two uniformed Atlas Huntsmen with a story about the wildlife in her home kingdom (Blake distinctly heard something about crabs) to a Haven student trying and failing to flirt with a Beacon student. Blake’s eyes narrowed at the last one as she only now came to a very basic realization.

 _‘I don’t have a uniform. And I don’t think Weiss has one either.’_ Blake looked back at the luggage rack and the suits sternly moving it along and rolled her eyes. _‘Or maybe she does in that mountain she brought. She’s a bit smaller than me, but I think I can bum a uniform off her until I can get one of my own.’_ With a nod Blake shut her book, taking a moment to look around the plaza she had found herself in along with the statue of two Huntsmen standing proud over a Beowolf, and turned to Weiss. “Hey Weiss-“ she started to say when a much louder shout echoed through the air.

“Get back here!” someone shouted just as a girl in a Beacon uniform and a white cloak appeared out of nowhere in a storm of white rose petals grinning like a madwoman. She landed in a roll and looked back as a blonde boy jumped on a bench and jumped toward her. She dashed out of the way, leaving the boy to roll on the ground and chase after her. Soon her path was blocked when a black-haired boy jumped in and held his arms out.

She skidded to a stop and cartwheeled to the side, barely dodging the blonde as he leapt at her from behind. The blonde was caught by the other boy and spun forward around his arm to land on his feet and they both resumed the chase as the girl ran to the statue and jumped, disappearing and reappearing on top of one of the Huntsman in a flurry of petals. She turned around and grinned smugly down at the boys while crouching down.

“You can’t run forever Summer! We’ll catch you sooner or later!” the black-haired boy shouted up at the girl, who responded by pulling down her eyelid and sticking her tongue at the boys. The boys growled and jumped onto the base of the statue and leapt after her only to miss when she did her rose petal trick again. Blake saw the grins on the boys faces and Summer must have realized what had happened just as a portal opened up in the air next to her and a black haired girl leapt out with cold eyes focused on Summer. She barely had time to realize what had happened when the girl reared her hand back and slapped her legs.

“Tag!” she yelled out triumphantly while Summer wailed in despair. The boys landed on the pavement while the black haired girl did a quick flip in the air to watch as Summer sailed over Weiss and Blake and crashed into the luggage cart, the suits pushing it jumping away when she did so. The black haired girl landed and winced at the sight. “Ooh, that must have hurt.”

“Fuck,” Summer said flatly from her new resting place and moved to sit up and only then noticing the suitcase in her arms. “Where did I land?”

“You…” Blake looked over at Weiss and backed away from her given how angry she looked when she shouted, “YOU IDIOT! Do you have any idea what you almost did!?”

“…Lose a game of tag?” Summer replied.

“Get out of there!” Weiss screamed as she stormed over to Summer and pulled her out of the luggage. Summer was barely able to find her footing when the suitcase was ripped from her arms and Weiss opened it. “These suitcases are filled with Dust! You know, the element that makes our world go?” Weiss took out a vial of Fire Dust and started waving it in front of Summer. “You know, Fire, Ice, Electricity. Energy! Do you have any idea what you could have done!?”

Before Weiss could say any more Summer quickly grabbed Weiss’ arm to keep it still. That along with Summer’s serious face shocked Weiss out of her anger and she realized some Dust was leaking out of the phial. “Stop that or you really _will_ blow us up,” Summer said as she grabbed the phial out of Weiss’ hand, popped the cork back in properly with her thumb, and placed it back in the suitcase. “And like I was supposed to know these had Dust in them,” Summer finished as she let go of Weiss’ arm.

“…Yes, you’re right,” Weiss nodded slowly as she shut the suitcase and handed it to one of the employees to put away. “I apologize, but I hope you understand why I acted like that.”

“Oh, I understand.”

“Easy there Sum,” the black haired boy said walking up behind Summer and rested his arms on her head, “It’s probably her first time outside her fancy manor in Atlas.”

“Get off me Qrow!”

“Yeah, now that you mention it, that is the SDC’s shut-in heiress,” the black haired girl said, causing Weiss to turn around in time for her to lean in closer with her sharp red eyes boring into Weiss. “I shouldn’t be surprised by this though, we’re getting all types for the festival nowadays.”

“Back off,” Blake said as she moved between the two. The girl only gave a small laugh before moving past Blake to Summer and Qrow.

“So why are you here? Pitching products for your father?” Qrow asked with no small amount of disdain flavoring the last word.

“Far from it. I’m here to compete in the tournament,” Weiss answered.

“Really, you’re a Huntress now?” The blonde boy asked while scratching his head, “I would have thought that would be bigger news.”

“It was kept a secret for my safety. I hope you understand why.”

“The White Fang. That makes sense,” Qrow said nodding before he got an elbow to the gut courtesy of Summer and backed away.

“Thank you Qrow,” Summer said casually as Qrow rubbed his stomach and crossed her arms, “So if you’re a student where’s your team?”

“Um…” Weiss started to say when a new voice called out.

“Hey, you’re finally here!” Blake looked over at a girl dressed in black and red waving and running over to her with a blonde girl following behind at a slow pace.

 _‘Their pictures were in the scroll. Ruby and Yang, my teammates along with Weiss,’_ Blake thought as Ruby leapt at Weiss and grabbed her neck, knocking Weiss off balance and sending them both to the floor. Blake hid a smirk behind a hand while Yang flat out laughed at the sight.

“Oh, your Ruby’s teammates,” Summer said with a nod, “mystery solved. In that case, I’ll leave you in her hands.” She looked back at her team and, after a second, reached out and tapped Qrow on the nose. “You’re it, Qrow.” Summer burst into petals while the rest of them scattered, leaving Qrow to whisper out a quick ‘goddammit’ before taking off as well.

When it was all said and done Blake looked around to find that, while most of the assembled students had the expected looks of surprise and confusion much like her, all the Beacon students looked bored or unsurprised. Blake was even sure she overheard a student say, “Frickin’ STRQ,” before going back to her conversation.

“Get off me!” Weiss finally shouted and shoved Ruby off of her and stood back up dusting off her jacket. “Where do you get off jumping at people like that.”

“What, would you rather have a hug?” Yang asked and held her arms open and got only a stare from Weiss before she rubbed at her eyes.

“I’m sure you give good hugs Yang,” Blake said moving forward to stand next to Weiss and gestured at her and the luggage rack, “but it’s been a long flight for both of us and we didn’t get much rest along the way.”

“…Yes, that’s exactly what I was going to say,” Weiss said, taking her hand away from her face.

“You just want to sleep the day away?” Ruby asked, jumping to her feet and clasping her hands behind her back. “Eh, that’s fine. We’ll show you to the dorm and then show you around the academy when you rested up. Does that sound like a plan, sis?”

“Sure thing,” Yang said and wrapped an arm around Ruby’s neck and started giving her a noogie. “And don’t be too mad at Ruby. She may be a pain, but you won’t find a better sister, partner, or leader than her.”

“Get off me, Yang!” Ruby shrieked and threw a punch at Yang’s jaw, which landed solidly and set her free from her sister’s grip. Yang took it well if her laughing was any indication and massaged her jaw as she followed Ruby as she stomped off, leaving Weiss and Blake to look at each other for a moment before following after them.

“They’re… interesting,” Weiss said.

“Yeah,” Blake agreed with a nod. _‘Are all Huntsmen like that?’_

“And what did she mean by ‘partner’?”

“Are you… no, of course, you're serious.” Blake looked at Ruby and Yang before moving close to Weiss. _“Ok, so academy teams are made up of four people and two pairs of partners. You know, someone to watch your back.”_

Weiss nodded in understanding, glanced at the sisters, and whispered back, _“So if those two are partners, then…?”_

 _“Then that makes us partners.”_ Blake backed off, looked Weiss up and down, and nodded as she opened her book. “You’re already better than my last one.” Weiss looked at Blake in confusion before she decided to let the topic go and looked around Beacon as they made their way to the dorms.

Save for a small incident of trying to figure out how to get Weiss’ luggage to the upper floors (which was easily solved when Ruby pointed out an elevator) the trip to the dorm was uneventful and soon they were in. The SDC employees started unloading Weiss’ luggage in a corner while she and Blake looked at their sleeping arrangements.

“Bunk beds?” Weiss asked looking between the two sets of bunk beds, if the haphazard constructions could even be called such.

“That’s being very generous,” Blake said looking at one of them, which was barely held up by a series of ropes and sheets, and to the other that held up by a pile of books on each of the four posts of the lower one. Blake couldn’t help but cringe at the crime against literature. “Are those even safe to sleep on?”

“They should be,” Ruby said leaping onto the roped bed, “Yang and I have been sleeping on the top bunks and they seem steady enough.”

“Why would you sleep on the top bunks?” Weiss asked.

“Because the top bunks are the best, duh,” Yang answered crossing her arms and leaning against a support pillar of books. “It’s been scientifically proven!”

“Whatever, I’m claiming this bed for myself,” Blake said with a shake of her head as she walked over to Yang. She put her book on the dresser next to the bed and fell face first onto it, falling asleep the moment she hit the pillow without even bothering to take off her boots.

“We’re all done here Miss Schnee,” one of the employees said. Weiss looked over to where her luggage was piled nicely and nodded at them. They nodded back and left the room dragging the luggage cart behind them. Weiss shut the door behind them and let out a short yawn.

“Blake has the right idea, I’m going to get some more sleep too,” Weiss said as she moved to her luggage and set Myrtenaster next to them before moving to the only unclaimed bed. She at least had a mind to take her boots off before lying down, letting out a soft sigh as she sank into the mattress and fell asleep.

“Wow, asleep just like that huh?” Yang said moving over to Weiss and waved a hand in front of her face, getting no response from the heiress. “Must have done something like stay up too much on the flight. So what do you-“ Yang was shushed by Ruby who pointed at Blake and outlined cat ears on top of her head with her fingers. Yang blinked and nodded before she pointed at the bathroom door and got a nod in reply from Ruby. They both entered the bathroom and Yang shut the door quietly while Ruby went to the shower and got in, Yang following soon after. Yang turned the water on, which started coming down on both of them.

“Didn’t exactly think this through,” Yang snarked as she turned around and crossed her arms while trying her best to ignore how soaking wet her clothes and hair were getting. “So what do you think of the dolls?”

“First impressions were minimal at best,” Ruby said shaking her head, “But what I did gather seems good. We can work with them.”

“I agree, especially since they didn’t ask any questions about us. They probably think we’re in the same boat as them or something.” Yang chuckled to herself and wiggled the fingers on her right hand. “That might be an angle worth going down if they ask. What about fighting?”

“Weiss and Blake say they both had training in some form and Blake’s doll has been roaming the wilds on her own for almost a year now. We might have to watch them both, but they should be able to hold their own.”

“I meant fighting together. We’re supposed to be a team after all.” Yang tapped her boot against the shower floor and rubbed her chin in thought. “Our fighting styles might be incompatible, and that’ll only draw suspicion. Is there any way to find out?”

“Maybe… sparring classes are tomorrow, and since we have our whole team here now we can take part.” Ruby smiled toothily as she rubbed her chin, “And what better way to test them than to throw them to sharks?”

“Ooh, that sounds evil. I’m listening.”

* * *

“And that’s just about the basics. Do you think you can remember all that?”

“I think. What do I have to do for Freezer Burn again?” The sparring class for Team RWBY so far mostly consisted of them going over the team attacks they’d be using going forward. Blake only paid the smallest amount of attention necessary to get down what she needed to do for her participation and tried to read her book the rest of the time. Weiss on the other hand seemed to want to know every detail of the attacks that Blake could only attribute as wanting to get a conversation going.

“The timing will be tricky. Are you sure we can do that without any practice?” Weiss asked.

“We’ll just have to see won’t we?” Yang asked and leaned forward to get a look at Blake, “And what about you? You got any-?”

“Ladybug, Checkmate, Bumblebee,” Blake said and held up fingers, “I remember them all and what I need to do. And we’re going to lose any fight we get in right now.”

“…Well with that attitude we will,” Ruby said quietly. Blake opted not to respond to that and closed her book to look around the crowd of students they were seated with. About two rows in front of her was the team she had ‘met’ yesterday quietly watching the match going on, though the blonde was busy showing a video on his scroll to a girl seated next to him. She could only imagine what it was from the little bits she overheard, mostly about sloths and ‘how cute they sounded’. Her scanning was brought to a sudden stop by a thud next to her.

“Hey, is this place taken?” Blake looked to her left at the monkey Faunus crouching on the bench smiling widely at her, along with several of the students glaring at him after he jumped over them.

“Well, I guess it isn’t now,” Blake said with mild sarcasm.

“Cool. Yo, over here!” He waved his arms over his head and sat down properly as three other boys made their way up to him. He held a hand out to Blake and said, “The name’s Sun. Are you new here too?”

“Yes,” Blake answered and reopened her book to start reading. Sun took his hand back and shrugged at Neptune as he sat down next to him and turned to watch the match. After a second Blake sighed and rubbed her eyes before she said, “Sorry, I’m just tired. My name is Blake.”

“Huh? Oh, that’s a nice name,” Sun said with another smile that just as quickly dropped when he tilted his head to look past Blake. Blake followed his gaze to find Weiss staring at Sun, most likely debating something in her head.

“Weiss, stop staring!”

“Huh? Oh, I didn’t mean to! I just…” Weiss trailed off as she looked back at Sun and scratched her cheek before she finally asked, “Does it… hurt when you grab it?”

“What?” Blake asked at the same time as Sun, both very much confused by her statement.

“She’s talking about your tail,” the redhead that came with Sun said and got a nod from Weiss. “Remember, I asked that on our first day as a team and you threw fruit at me for asking.”

“…Oh yeah. Good times.” The boys shared a laugh, even if the red head rolled his eyes while doing so, and Sun looked back at Weiss and pointed at his tail that he moved over his shoulder. “And nah, it doesn’t hurt any more than if you grabbed my arm or something really hard. If this guy was _that_ sensitive, I wouldn’t be able to do half the things I can do.” Sun then fist bumped his tail, wiggling both his fingers and tail as they moved away from each other, and grinned when he noticed Blake smile a little.

 _‘Mission aside, I think I’ll enjoy my stay here,’_ Blake thought before a quick flash of red crossed her thoughts and she dropped the smile, _‘Within reason.’_ A loud buzzer suddenly filled the arena signaling the end of the current match and Blake turned her attention to the ring where the losing team was getting back on their feet while the winning team was celebrating their victory, save for a sheep Faunus carrying a shepherd’s crook who was struggling to catch her breath. The teacher in charge of the class, Glynda Goodwitch if Blake remembered right, walked in between them tapping on her scroll.

“Good match teams,” Glynda said looking both teams over, “you both should be able to qualify for the Vytal Tournament. However, you need to work on your endurance Maribelle. You’ll be no use to your team if you exhaust yourself in the first minutes of a match.”

“Understood,” Maribelle gasped out and promptly collapsed face first onto the floor. Glynda left her to get picked up by her partner and turned to the crowd of students while the tired teams left the arena.

“Now do we have any more volunteers for a match? Like the Vytal Tournament year and skill are irrelevant, so don’t hesitate to-“

“Team RWBY volunteers!” Ruby shouted and waved her arms over her head as she stood up. Blake and Weiss looked at Ruby questioningly while Yang simply smiled up at her sister.

“Quite enthusiastic of you. Now for opponents I would recommend-“

“I want to fight Team STRQ!” Ruby interrupted excitedly. Said team, save Raven, turned around to look at Ruby in surprise although Ruby only looked at Summer to gauge her reaction.

“Even though Team STRQ has the skill advantage? You are confident if anything,” Glynda said and looked at Summer as she turned back to look at her. “Do you accept Summer?”

“…Of course Professor,” Summer said standing up and brushing off her combat dress, “It’ll get our daily exercise out of the way.” Summer then looked back at Ruby, her eyes boring into the younger girl’s, and added, “And I’m curious about what you can do.”

Ruby only smiled in response as she started walking out of the audience with Yang following behind. STRQ left as well, the twins with little care and the blonde giving a quick apology as he put his scroll away, and Blake stood up before looking at Weiss. The heiress still seemed lost in thought about the team attacks, so Blake put her hand on her shoulder and lightly shook her out of her thoughts.

“Huh, what?” Weiss muttered before looking at Blake.

“It’s our turn,” Blake said simply pointing at the arena.

“O-oh, already?” Weiss stood up and nodded at Blake, who returned it and turned to follow Ruby and Yang.

As she passed in front of Sun he waved at the pair and said, “I’ll watch your spot while you fight. Good luck!” Blake nodded her appreciation and carefully moved past the boys into the aisle with Weiss, the latter looking back to see Sun pick up Blake’s book and attempt to read it. Weiss could only roll her eyes at the look of bafflement that passed his face.

Both teams had gotten their weapons from their lockers and made their way into the arena, each team taking a side of the arena. The leaders were staring the other down while their teammates were checking their weapons, Dust stores if they had them, or simply massaging their knuckles in the case of the two brawlers of the team. Once she was sure Gambol Shroud was fine Blake lowered her hood and waved her hair out fully, if only to avoid having that distraction during the fight.

“The match between Team RWBY and STRQ will now begin,” Glynda called out. Both teams got their weapons ready and lowered into their respective stances. Summer couldn’t help the hum of admiration when Ruby unfolded her scythe and held it behind her at the ready. Taiyang had a similar reaction to Yang unfolding a set of gauntlets on her arms. The tension between both teams was heavy and only grew heavier until it was shattered by Glynda shouting, “Begin!”

“Freezer Burn!” Ruby called out immediately and jumped to the side with Blake jumping backwards and Yang leaping into the air and yanking an arm back to cock a round into her gauntlet. Weiss looked up at the blonde and everything clicked into place in her mind easily as she spun around and stabbed her rapier into the ground. A thin sheet of ice covered the ground around her and Yang shot down and punched the ice with a gunshot punctuating it which melted the ice easily and covered the arena in a thick fog with STRQ holding up an arm to shield their faces from the blast of mist.

“Neat trick,” Qrow muttered as he looked around the foggy surroundings before settling on Summer as she lifted her hood over her head.

“We’ll find them. Phoenix and Summer Bird, split up,” Summer ordered and darted to the right with Qrow while Taiyang and Raven went to the left. An action that only Glynda was able to see while everyone in the audience could see nothing.

“I can’t see shit,” Scarlet said squinting his eyes to try and peer into the fog, “Is this normal here?”

“With these guys, probably,” Sun answered resting his head in his hands. The fog swirled as the fighters inside darted back and forth until a series of loud metallic clashes rang loudly from inside and the fog was suddenly blown away by a shockwave that was soon revealed to the result of Yang and Taiyang’s fists clashing in the middle of the arena. Yang was in the air grinning madly at Taiyang until she was blown back through the air, flipped a couple of times, and landed on her feet skidding backwards a little.

Yang straightened up and watched Taiyang shake his hand to dull the pain from the clash and loaded a new shell into her gauntlet with a jerk of her arm. “You got a wicked straight,” Yang complimented and put her arms up in a boxer’s fighting pose, “This’ll be fun, don’t you think?”

Taiyang rolled his wrist around for a moment before he moved to match her pose and made a bring it gesture at her. Yang let out a small laugh at that and charged at him, rearing her right arm back and throwing a hook with a yell. Taiyang ducked under it easily and countered with a hook of his own that landed squarely on Yang’s cheek. She rolled with the punch and spun around to backhand Taiyang, only to have her arm blocked and caught. She continued the spin and went for another punch only for Taiyang to knock her first arm down and dash forward. Yang was thrown off balance enough from this that her punch just barely missed Taiyang and felt him slip an arm around her neck before standing up and kneeing her hard in the stomach.

Taiyang kneed her two more times before she jumped and flipped over Taiyang’s arm. Her free arm grabbed his wrist and allowed her to maneuver her flip in a way that allowed her to plant her feet on Taiyang’s chest and kick him away. She backflipped away from him and landed on her feet at the same time as he landed on his back and started rolling backwards until he slipped a hand under him and flipped back onto his feet. Taiyang was barely back on his feet before he had to dodge backwards to avoid a shot from Yang, the floor cracking under the force of the shot. Taiyang locked eyes with Yang as she cocked a gauntlet and gestured at him to ‘bring it.’

“Heh, I need something like that,” Taiyang muttered to himself before charging at the blonde girl who responded by firing a barrage of shots at him. He dodged left and right to avoid them until he was close enough that he had to duck under a shot and slid at Yang’s feet. She was knocked off her feet and started flipping in the air before she fired at the ground at her second flip to steady herself and try to hit Taiyang as he slid under her. She only barely missed him and landed on her feet as he stopped his slide and they turned and rushed at each other.

Yang loaded another round as she reared her right arm back, Taiyang doing the same with his arm glowing from his Semblance, and the two threw their respective punches at the other and barely missed and found their arms locked together. Yang’s hair billowed away from the impact while her weapon fired past Taiyang’s head causing the shot to go wild toward one of the other fights. Though Raven wasn’t caught off guard by the attack at all, having seen the attack coming out of the corner of her eye, and blocked the attack with her sword and swiftly redirected the blast toward Blake with a swipe of her sword.

Blake jumped to the side to dodge the energy wave and charged at Raven, her grip tightening on her weapons as her eyes locked with Raven’s. Raven held her sword at the ready and waited for Blake to get close, moving her sword just enough when the younger girl attacked to parry the sword away from her. Sparks flew off of their blades and Blake spun around to swing her scabbard at Raven, who ducked under it easily and kicked at Blake’s legs. Blake found herself swept off her feet and maneuvered herself so she landed on her back and spun around to swipe at Raven’s legs.

Raven dodged backwards and held her sword up as Blake folded Gambol Shroud’s blade and started shooting at Raven. Raven spun her sword to block the bullets before jumping into the air when Blake stopped. When she did so Blake saw Weiss having trouble with her fight against Qrow and made a snap decision. She looked back up at Raven as she came down ready to kick down, only for Blake to disappear like a shadow. Raven landed and looked behind her to see Blake just get up from a roll and start running toward Qrow and Weiss.

“Huh, interesting,” Raven muttered as she sheathed her sword and turned to focus on the heiress as she started losing ground to Qrow. Weiss was still doing well enough that she hadn’t been hit yet since Qrow wasn’t the kind of person to be subtle about where his attacks were going. Which was something he more than made up for in strength. She grit her teeth as she blocked the latest attack and was pushed back a couple feet. Weiss took a moment to catch her breath when Qrow didn’t push the advantage.

“I thought so,” Qrow said spinning his sword idly before resting it on his shoulder and pointing at Weiss, “your style is familiar. Winter, right?”

“You… know my sister?” Weiss couldn’t help but ask as she readied for a thrust and spun her weapon’s cylinder. _‘Let’s try Fire.’_

“Oh yeah, she’s a real card. Too bad you’re nothing like her though.” Weiss narrowed her eyes at that just as something slammed into her side and knocked her off balance. Qrow saw his chance and charged at Weiss, his sword low and ready to swing upwards. Weiss’ eyes widened as Qrow swung and she felt a pair of arms wrap around her. Shock turned to brief confusion when she found herself flipping in the air with Qrow below her having missed somehow.

“Weiss!” Blake shouted right behind Weiss, who reflexively formed a Glyph in the air. Blake landed on it, pushed off it toward the ground, and let go of Weiss so they could separately land. Weiss managed to land with one hand on the ground that she moved into a flip before she turned back to Qrow and formed a Fire glyph that shot a fireball at Qrow. He jumped out of the way, though was still blown back by the blast. Blake landed and rolled into a crouch, drawing and aiming Gambol Shroud at Raven just as she caught her sword out of the air while walking to them.

“Thanks for the save,” Weiss said as Blake backed against her.

“Thank me later,” Blake returned and glanced over at Qrow as he picked himself up. Beyond him she could see Ruby and Summer fighting it out until Ruby knocked Summer away with a recoil assisted blow.

“Qrow!” Summer called out as she tumbled through the air. Qrow looked back and turned to face Summer as he spun his weapon to unfold it into its scythe form and held it up. Summer moved her sword under her feet and braced as she landed in the crook of the scythe. The impact forced the scythe back slightly and Qrow fired a round to get it spinning, completing a rotation before swinging it with enough extra force to launch Summer. Blades scrapped against each other with a spray of sparks being left behind as Summer flew away from Qrow and back toward Ruby.

“That was awes-!” Ruby shouted before getting a boot to the face courtesy of Summer and got knocked back several feet.

 _‘I swear I’m the only one taking this seriously,’_ Blake thought, shaking her head before turning back to her fight. Raven spun her sword and held it ready in front of her while Qrow turned back to Weiss, his scythe turning back into a sword as he circled around her and Blake. “I don’t suppose you have any ideas?”

“Maybe, if you can keep him busy,” Weiss answered as she switched her weapon to load Plant Dust.

“You know we can hear you guys right?” Qrow asked mockingly with Raven adding her own chuckle.

“…Just do what you can.” With that Weiss dashed at Qrow while Blake ran at Raven, throwing Gambol Shroud at her as an opening. Weiss’ initial thrust was parried easily by Qrow and she used the momentum to spin around and go for another stab that was parried as well. Slash, block, stab, parry, the two went back and forth until Weiss had to block a two handed slash from Qrow that sent her skidding back a ways even as she stabbed her sword into the ground to slow her down.

“Fun as this is, I think it’s time to wrap this up,” Qrow said as he loaded a few rounds into his weapon.

“I agree,” Weiss said and flicked her finger’s upwards, lighting the small trough her sword had made green toward a glyph that formed under Qrow. He looked down at it as it turned green and sighed in annoyance.

“Fu-“ was all Qrow could get out before the glyph activated and knocked him into the air in a flurry of vines and knocked him between several of them as they rapidly grew.

“Blake, now!” Weiss shouted and moved her sword to direct the plants growth toward her partner. Blake locked blades with Raven and looked away long enough to see Qrow get launched out of the growing vines as they grew at an angle. Blake looked back at Raven long enough to jump and kick her away before turning in the air, folding up her blade, and throwing her weapon at Qrow. With a gunshot to speed it along it flew toward him and wrapped around his waist, which she followed with grabbing the ribbon attached to it and pulling herself toward Qrow. Weiss meanwhile formed another glyph to jump onto to launch herself up towards Qrow.

All of this meant that, by the time Blake landed on Qrow and bounced off with her sheath ready and Weiss was on her way up, Qrow could only sigh again before both girls slashed him followed by kicking him to the ground. He landed roughly with his Aura flickering followed by a klaxon ringing out when Weiss and Blake landed.

“Qrow Branwen has been eliminated,” Glynda called out and tapped her scroll to put a red X over Qrow’s picture, which was reflected on the overlooking monitors, and Weiss pumped her arms in victory while Blake simply smiled.

“This whole thing is a lot easier than I thought it would be,” Weiss said with a light swing of her sword, “or maybe it’s because of how well we work together?”

“It certainly helps,” Blake agreed as her smile dropped. _‘We are working well together. Almost_ too _well considering this is our first fight. I wonder…’_

“Well, we should get back to the fight now.”

“Probably a good idea.” The girls looked at Qrow as he groggily sat up and laid a hand on a knee with a smirk. “But I think you forgot something.”

“What do you-?” Weiss started to ask when both her and Blake had a realization.

“Crap!” Blake shouted and turned around for Raven to punch her in the solar plexus. All the air in Blake’s lungs were let out in a rough gasp and Raven forced her to bend forward to roll over her back and leap toward Weiss. The heiress only barely got her guard up only for Raven to knock it away with a swipe of her sword, followed by a jab of her pommel to Weiss’ jaw. With Weiss reeling from the blow Raven slashed down Weiss’ body, knocking her backwards with her Aura breaking once she hit the floor.

“One down,” Raven said turning back to Blake and dashing toward her. Blake managed to recover enough to swing at Raven, who blocked it easily and kicked at Blake’s legs. Suddenly swept off her feet, Blake’s grip on her weapon loosened enough for Raven to take it from her. Blake spun in the air enough to see Raven ready both of them and slash both of them across her, breaking her Aura instantly and sending her falling to the ground. She groaned and winced when Raven dropped Gambol Shroud next to her. “And that’s two,” she said as the klaxons blared to announce the new defeats.

“Good job sis,” Qrow called out and gave Raven a thumbs up that she didn’t see. Raven swung her sword lightly in the air as she turned to the rest of the fight.

Summer and Ruby were still dashing around each other, the former using her experience fighting Qrow to good use, while the fight Raven really wanted to get into was still in the center of the ring. Raven stepped to the side to let Taiyang fly past her and land in a tumble onto his back, a klaxon blaring when he stopped. “Take five Tai.”

“Fine with me,” Taiyang shouted and raised a thumb before pushing himself up with his elbows, “and be careful, she hits hard!”

“I hope so.” Raven sheathed her sword and hit the switch to switch the blade to an Ice blade while Yang clicked her gauntlets and ejected all the spent shells she had used earlier and threw two sets of new shells into the air to swiftly catch in her gauntlets.

“So it’s just you and me huh Raven?” Yang asked and settled into a fighting stance, “I can’t wait to see how you fight.”

“Be careful what you wish for.” Raven looked over at Summer as she blocked another swing from Ruby that sent her into the air in a controlled flip before Blinking down next to her. Ruby dashed next to Yang, leaving a trail of red rose petals that trailed behind her and fluttered in the air when she stopped. “Huh, she’s got a rose thing too,” Raven said as she quirked an eyebrow and glanced at Summer, “no wonder you like her.”

“Focus,” Summer chided and reaffirmed her grip on her sword. Raven rolled her eyes and started walking to the left with Summer going right with their respective opponents following them. Raven watched every movement Yang made and was extra careful with her foot placement while her hand rested on her sword, Summer doing much the same while Ruby slowly reloaded.

The tension soon shattered when Ruby finished reloading and pulled the slide back with a loud mechanical *clack* and Yang smirked at Raven, her lilac eyes turning red, and fired her gauntlets to launch her forward. Yang reared an arm back and threw a punch at Raven, who quickly drew her sword and deflected it. The Ice blade scraped against the gauntlet, sparking against each other in just the right way for the Dust to ignite, and Raven spun around to kick Yang in the back. Yang was knocked forward in a flip from the blow, but managed to get her hands under her to get into a handstand and flip back onto her feet.

When she turned around she barely got her guard up to block a blow from Raven, her blade now alive and emanating mist, and Yang smiled at the sight. “Neat.”

Meanwhile Summer ran at Ruby as she spun and planted her scythe blade first into the floor. She aimed and fired at Summer, who managed to dodge the two shots that managed to go off and vaulted onto the scythe. Even with her grip a little awkward with Soleil in her hand Summer still managed to get enough leverage to kick at Ruby, who ducked under it and braced her feet against the scythe’s blade and fired again to kick the scythe out of the ground and into the air.

The two girls were knocked airborne with Summer getting thrown off the scythe completely, though she managed to keep her bearings enough to find Ruby in the air. Ruby fired another shot to steady her spin and turned to Summer just as she Blinked toward her. Ruby blocked a sword swipe with the shaft of her scythe and fired a shot down to send her up higher hoping to get away from Summer, only to find that she had held onto the shaft as well. Ruby was surprised by this and ducked under another sword swipe.

In that brief moment as they hung in the air, Ruby’s eyes widened as she met Summer’s. They were sharp and unwavering, focused only on Ruby while ignoring everything else around her. She’d even go so far as to say they would be ready to ignite as easily as any piece of tinder. _‘Forget her name,_ those _are more telling than anything,’_ Ruby thought as she grinned widely, _‘A warrior down to her very core.’_

Still, Ruby did want to win. When she was done with her admiration Ruby kicked off her scythe to spin around the handle to kick Summer. She only realized she may have made a mistake when she saw Summer let go of the scythe and held her sword up to block the kick while petals were drifting off of her.

“Black Rose!” Summer shouted just as Ruby kicked her away. Raven heard her clearly from where she was grappling with Yang and pushed her away. Yang steadied herself and threw a punch at Raven as she spun around and countered with a slash that destroyed the blade and covered Yang’s arm in ice. The sudden weight threw Yang off balance which only made it easier for Raven to vault over her and kick off her back, sending the blonde stumbling forward before turning around in time to see Raven sheath the sword hilt and snap her fingers.

Yang quirked an eyebrow when a portal appeared next to Raven, with another one appearing next to Summer in the air, and Summer blinked through it and came out the top on the other side with her gaze fixed on Yang. Her eyes widened when she realized what was coming and bashed her fists together to break the ice on her arm and get her guard up. Summer swung her sword down at Yang, who blocked it with a gauntlet and grabbed the sword with her other hand and threw Summer behind her, where she landed roughly on her back with a flash of Aura.

“Yang look out!” Ruby shouted having landed some ways away and when Yang turned to look at Ruby she saw Raven disappear into another portal. She looked back at Summer as Raven came out the connecting portal just as Summer got up into a crouch and they both dashed toward her.

Summer jumped and Blinked at Yang before swinging her sword down on her again, which got blocked and pushed Yang back slightly as Summer threw all her weight against the girl. Yang braced her feet and threw Summer back in time to see Raven kick her legs out from under her. Yang was in the air for a second before Raven grabbed her arm and flipped her onto her back, wrenched her arm around, and slammed a boot onto her face. It was only when a klaxon blared and Glynda called that Yang was out of the match did Raven let her go and focus on the last remaining fighter on RWBY.

Ruby looked between the two girls and took a breath as she ejected the magazine in her scythe and took out a new one marked with a Gravity symbol from a pouch. She put it in place and cocked the weapon just as Raven drew a new blade and Summer unsheathed her dagger. Ruby aimed behind her and hit a switch to straighten the blade before dashing forward in a burst of rose petals. She reappeared in front of them and fired a shot to get a fast swing going. It was barely deflected by Raven while Summer ducked under the swing, so Ruby let the momentum carry her into a second swing. That was blocked completely by Raven, who slid a little from the force of the blow, that left Ruby wide open for a Blink enhanced kick from Summer. Ruby’s grip slackened enough for Raven to rip the scythe away from her with her sword while Summer hung in the air for a moment before landing a follow-up kick to the side of her head.

Ruby was sent flying and landed on her side, down but still technically in by Aura count. Summer put a quick end to that by walking up to her, switching Soleil into its gun form, and kneeling down next to her to press the gun to her forehead. “You lose,” she said as she stared at a very surprised Ruby, who took a second before she started laughing.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Ruby replied and waved a hand in the air. A klaxon sounded a second later and Summer stood up with the smallest of smiles.

“And the winner is Team STRQ,” Glynda said walking into the middle of the arena while looking over the recovering combatants. “You all seem more than adequately prepared for the tournament, though a little more team synergy could go a long way.”

“I’ll take it into consideration Professor,” Summer said sheathing both of her weapons and glancing at Raven who was already on her way out of the arena with Qrow. Summer rolled her eyes and walked over to Ruby’s scythe, picked it up, and looked it over for a moment before figuring out how to fold the scythe up. With a smile she went back to Ruby, who had sat up and started rubbing her head, and held the scythe out to her. “You’ll have to show me this some more sometime, preferably outside of combat.” Ruby blinked and took the scythe before breaking out in a smile as she laid it across her lap.

“Sure thing, I’m actually quite proud of Crescent Rose,” she said patting the scythe, “I made her myself after all.”

“Let’s figure that out later, since there are more matches to be held.” Summer turned to walk out of the arena and was joined by Taiyang, already commenting on the fight, and looked at Yang sitting cross legged where she had fallen and gave her a V-sign with a large grin. Yang returned it with a thumbs up and a satisfied smirk before pushing herself up to her feet.

In their little corner Weiss was the first to get up and walked over to Blake. “Are you ok?” she asked and reached a hand down to her partner.

“I’ve been better,” Blake answered and took the hand and stood up with Weiss’ help. She brushed off her clothes and lifted her hood back over her head, “But I’ve been far worse too. I have some rust to shake off I guess.”

“I think we did well, all things considered,” Weiss said and started walking to rejoin Ruby and Yang, not noticing Blake blink and look down at her bandaged hands.

 _‘Yeah, a little too well for our first fight. What was that?’_ Blake thought and clenched her fists into hands. _‘It’s almost as if I’ve…’_

“Miss Belladonna,” Glynda said, snapping Blake from her thoughts, “if you’ll please exit the arena. The next match needs to start soon.”

“…Sorry Professor.” Blake started jogging to Weiss and caught up with her in the passageway out just as another team of boys walked past them. They caught up with Ruby and Yang at the end of the passageway along with Summer, who was in the middle of talking to a Rabbit Faunus.

“And I got some great pictures to go with it,” she said and looked at RWBY with a smile, “First years just keep impressing me.”

“It’s what we aim for!” Yang said flashing double V-signs.

“So is there something else you wanted to talk about Velvet, or do you just want to keep heaping praise?” Summer asked, getting Velvet’s attention back. "Not that I mind that of course."

“Oh, yes actually,” Velvet said rubbing her chin a moment before pointing at Summer, “That party I told you about is happening next Friday.” Team RWBY couldn’t help but tilt their heads at that.

“In a week?” Summer asked and got a nod from Velvet. Summer scratched her cheek as she started muttering, “That’ll be right after midterms then. It’ll be tight, but I think we can do that.”

“Great, it’s a date then! Oh, I also told Coco what you told me and… well, she cursed a lot, but ultimately understood what you meant. She did want to make it clear that it doesn’t change much, just that if you need the help we’ll always answer that call.”

“I’ll keep it in mind. I’ll let her know I appreciate it too, you guys are becoming real life savers for us.”

“No take backs on that!”

“You guys are going to have a party right after exams?” Ruby asked, crossing her arms, “That’s bold of you. Well, good luck with all of that!”

“Why are you acting smug? You have to do them too,” Summer pointed out.

“…What?”

“Yeah, you’re not exempt from the curriculum just because you transferred for the Vytal Festival,” Velvet added with a placating smile, “But don’t worry so much, it shouldn’t be too bad if you’ve been keeping up with your studies.”

“I can think of a few who haven’t,” Summer said and sighed, “maybe we can have a study group over the weekend?”

“I’m sure Coco wouldn’t mind.”

 _“The next match is now starting!”_ Glynda’s voice echoed through the hallway, _“Team CRDL vs Pyrrha Nikos!”_

“That’ll have to come later. Come on Vel, I want to see the slaughter!” Summer said and gave Velvet a light slap on her shoulder before sprinting down the hall, the Rabbit Faunus following after her.

“Exams huh?” Blake asked, rubbing her forehead, “That’s going to be a problem.”

“I don’t see how,” Weiss said, “They’re only tests. I’m sure we’ll all be fine for them.”

“Somehow I just knew you’d be the type to love studying,” Blake said, causing Weiss to flush a little, and pointed at Ruby and Yang, “But not all of us have the luxury of being you.” Weiss followed Blake’s finger to see her teammates were frozen stock still, their eyes wide and pupils narrowed to pinpoints, and sighed while rubbing her eyes.

“We’re dead.”


	7. Intermission: Midterms

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A pretty short one today. There's no real way to make school work interesting.

Midterms were coming. The time when all the student Huntsmen of the academies are tested on what they have learned throughout the year. While most students weren’t very worried about how they would do on these tests, as they saw them only as another obstacle to be conquered on their path as Huntsmen, there were some who were very worried about their scores.

Mostly the ones who either didn’t study or never have due to outside circumstances.

* * *

“Fuuuuuuuuuuu-“ Raven droned out as she ever so slowly felt consciousness slip away from her while reading a textbook. Her brother was having none of it and casually swiped the arm she was using to support herself out from under her, causing her to slam her face against her book and finish her drone. When she was sat straight up again she glared at Qrow who simply shrugged.

“If I got to suffer here, so you do Rae,” Qrow said and returned to his own work tapping a pencil against the desk. Raven continued to glare at him for a minute before sighing and reached out to grab another handful of chips from the center of the table.

“Why am I even here? I don’t struggle with tests at all, so I don’t get why I was dragged here.”

“Didn’t you bomb the math final last year?” Velvet asked while scratching one of her rabbit ears.

“Barely! And that’s another thing, why do we have to learn math here? How does that help me learn how to cut a Beowolf in half?”

“So you don’t get screwed out of a paycheck,” Coco answered as she put her pencil over her and started tracing a finger on the table. “Here's an example: say you take a job where you and two other Huntsmen have to take out a pack of Beowolves, let’s say twenty tops. You take out ten and the others take out five each. At 500 Lien a pop, how much did you make off that one hunt?”

“I’d feel like I’m getting short-changed if I’m getting paid only 500 for a Beowolf.”

“Exactly.” Raven, unable to really respond, chose to ignore Coco’s smirk and laid her head on top of her book again.

“It’ll be ok Raven,” Summer said and gave her partner a pat on the back, “and hey, you can take solace in the fact you won’t be the worst score this year.”

“You’re not helping!”

* * *

“PLEAAAAASE! YOU HAVE TO HELP US!” Team RWBY was not as well put together as the other teams, or rather two specific members weren’t, which led to the current situation of Ruby clinging to Weiss’ leg bawling her eyes out.

“Ruby, get off of me!” Weiss yelled while trying to push the younger girl off her boot with her other foot to no avail, “You're acting like you’ve never studied before!”

“I HAVEN’T!”

“Wha- are you serious?” Blake asked looking from Ruby to Yang, who was currently groveling on the ground in front of her, “But then how did you two get into Haven?”

“We… got by on combat scores?” Yang replied, more a question than anything. Silence hung for a few seconds before Blake sighed and shook her head.

“Somehow, I just knew that was the case. We should probably just help them Weiss. As far as I know we’re graded as a team, so it would be for the best. I mean, I was planning to study with you anyway.”

“Wait, you were?” Weiss asked, having now moved to sit on a desk to continue pushing Ruby off.

“Yeah, unless that’s a problem?”

“No, no it’s not a problem.” Weiss sighed and pinched her nose, “Fine Ruby, I’ll help you study. But we’re going to do this as a team, ok?”

“Thank you! Oh thank you Weiss, you’re the bestest best friend a girl could ask for!” Ruby cried and started rubbing her face against Weiss’ leg.

“Get off of me!” Weiss screamed again and resumed pushing Ruby off of her.

“If I can be totally honest Yang, I didn’t expect this to be the situation I’d end up in when I was coming here,” Blake said shaking her head.

 _“Neither did I,”_ Yang whispered through clenched teeth and tried her hardest not to burn a hole in the floor as Blake picked her up and moved her to a desk. Her only hope in this situation was that Cinder was suffering just as much as she was at this moment.

* * *

“Steam was… Fire and Water, right?” Emerald asked.

“Yep, that’s what I put down too,” Mercury replied and made a mark on a sheet of paper.

“I’ll just trust you on that,” Emerald said shaking her head and making a mark on her own paper and sighed, “I understand why we’re reviewing these tests, but is it really necessary?”

“In order to keep our cover going, we need to play the part,” Cinder said looking up from her sewing work for a moment, “which means having to go through everything the students go through as well. The tests, the curriculum, even if it is unnecessary.” She looked back down to continue her work and added, “Just remember why we’re here and swallow any indignity you may have.”

“Of course, you’re right. That reminds me, what did you put down for question eight?”

“Rock.” Cinder’s answer caused Emerald to slowly look back at her paper and lightly pound it against her head.

“Of course it’s Rock! Why did I put down Plant?” Once Emerald was done she shook her head and moved on to the next question. _‘This is why I’m glad to have Cinder leading us. She wouldn’t let something as simple as a test get her down.’_

Emerald couldn’t have been more wrong. Cinder was furious and quietly seething at having to be subjected to these tests when she had already memorized what she was being tested on. She was just good at masking these frustrations from Emerald and Mercury.

 _‘It’s only for a week,’_ Cinder thought to herself as she took a quiet, deep breath, _‘and at least Ruby and Yang are suffering more than I am.’_ That thought would at least help Cinder through the exams.

* * *

Of course it’s not just written tests and study groups. Physical exams are just as important to a student Huntsman as anything else, as a decrease in fighting ability would spell death on the field. The means of testing this are a little more… unorthodox than most would think, as Jaune found out in his first physical exam: a spar with Professor Port.

“Great show Mr. Arc! While in my opinion you’re still underprepared for a real combat mission, your basic form is very much improved! You even blocked some of my attacks! Keep it up and you will be ready, I’m sure of it!” Port’s compliments and subsequent laugh of joviality fell on deaf ears as Jaune was busy lying in a smoking heap on his side, his sword and shield lying beside him as he tried desperately to ignore the world around him. Especially Nora and Pyrrha cheering him on from the sidelines. This was soon brought to a premature end as Port walked over to him and picked him up by his hood and set him on his feet.

“I’ve heard you’ve been doing training outside of classes, and by all means I encourage you to continue it. Slow and steady progress is better than none at all!” Jaune nodded and looked down at his weapon as Port gave another hearty laugh. While it was true that he had been getting better thanks to Pyrrha, he still couldn’t shake off that feeling that he should be farther than he is. He had wanted to train harder lately, but Pyrrha dissuaded him of that. ‘You’ll just exhaust yourself and then you won’t get anywhere,’ was along the lines of what she had said that night.

“Is something on your mind Mr. Arc?” Port asked, drawing Jaune out of his thoughts.

“What? N-no, it’s nothing much,” Jaune said shaking his head before rubbing the back of his neck. His eyes drifted to Port’s weapon slung over his shoulder and added, “Well, there is one thing I wanted to ask.” Port simply nodded to urge Jaune on. “Well… doesn’t it hurt when you have those out all the time?” Port quirked an eyebrow and moved to examine his weapon, specifically the blades on the stock, and laughed again.

“Oh silly me, I forgot again,” Port said and pressed a switch near the trigger guard and retracted the blades into the stock before looking at Jaune, who was staring wide eyed at the weapon. “Truth be told, I forget about doing that all the time, but it hardly bothers me anymore! Soon you too will learn to ignore pain Mr. Arc.”

“…Right,” was all Jaune could respond with as Port gestured at his weapons.

“Best collect your weapons and get Ms. Nikos ready, it’s Barty’s turn to spar.” Jaune nodded and picked up his sword and shield and followed Port out of the arena, shooting a look at Pyrrha before he disappeared.

“I don’t envy you Pyrrha,” Qrow said barely moving his head out of his hands, “Oobleck is a real son of a bitch in a fight.”

“Really?” Pyrrha asked while looking from Qrow to Taiyang, who only nodded solemnly. After looking back and forth between the boys a couple times Pyrrha stood up and brushed off her lap. “Well I still intend to do my best. Wish me luck!”

“You’ll need more than luck,” Qrow responded and waved Pyrrha off. Despite that Pyrrha still left with an optimistic outlook of the coming spar.

That would only last as long as it took for her to see Oobleck with a thermos of coffee, have him drink from it, and then extend it into a flamethrower. Qrow was not wrong.


	8. Information gathering part 1

It was finally over. The week-long battle against midterms was finally done for the students and, for most of them, that signaled a weekend of free time and relaxation. For some it was just the latest challenge before they had to face an even tougher one immediately after. And yet, no matter which one they were, there was one last trial to face before they could be free to do what they wanted.

One last lecture from Professor Port.

“I was facing down two Ursai with nothing between them and me save for my trusty weapon and not much else. I didn’t even have a shirt on since that had been torn up earlier that fight! That wasn’t very pleasant. I'll tell you what! Now, the first thing I did was-“

To preserve their sanity most students by now had either fallen asleep like Qrow and Taiyang, stared forlornly at a holographic clock on their desks like Raven and Weiss, browsed on their scrolls like Summer and Blake, or in the case of Ruby and Yang had had their brains so thoroughly fried by the tests that they had effectively shut down.

“I’m dead…” Ruby managed to groan out as she laid her head on the desk with whiffs of smoke coming out of her ears.

“Me too…” Yang replied in much the same state.

“You babies,” Blake chided without looking up from her scroll and flinched when Jaune carefully scootched his way past her to sit next to Summer, not noticing the dirty look she gave him.

“Hey Summer,” Jaune started and rubbed the back of his head, “Those tests were pretty tough huh? Since we’re done now, I was wondering if you’d like to get a bite to eat or something.” Summer didn’t answer, instead choosing to focus on a music download she had started. Jaune didn’t notice this and continued. “And there was this new movie that just came out I thought you’d like. It’s a martial arts revenge movie or something, so maybe we can go see that?”

Thankfully the bell had mercy on them all and rang at that moment, knocking all the students out of their stupor and Port out of his story. “Huh, I guess I timed that poorly,” he said as the class started getting ready to leave, like Raven giving Taiyang and Qrow a good shove to wake them up. “Well I suppose we’ll just have to continue that some other day. Just remember, your troubles aren’t over just because exams are. There are plenty more challenges you will have to face before the dance next week. So stay vigilant!”

“Or maybe we could just get coffee?” Jaune asked as Summer put her scroll away and stood up, by now actively having to suppress twitches in her eye. “Does that sound good, or we could-“

“JAUNE, YOU’RE BEING AN ANNOYING SHIT! STOP IT!” Summer shouted suddenly as she stuck a finger right in Jaune’s face. Jaune flinched back from her in surprise and shock before it quickly turned to embarrassment since it happened in front of the entire class, Port included. It took a few seconds before Jaune properly processed what happened and curled into himself and faced the front of the room.

“Sorry,” was all he could reply with as quietly as he could and watched as Summer vaulted over the desk and angrily marched out of the classroom with Qrow and Raven following behind her.

Taiyang gave Jaune a sympathetic look and said, “It doesn’t get any easier,“ and he jogged after his teammates, the moment already gone for most of the other students as they filtered out after them. Jaune could only plant his face roughly on the desk in response.

“Well... that was… um?” Weiss started to say before stopping and rubbing her chin in thought.

“Brutal,” Yang finished weakly.

“Yes, that works. Thank you Yang.”

“Oh that can only mean good things.” Blake blinked and looked to her right as Sun hopped onto the seat next to her with a smirk. For a second she wondered how his uniform could stand his acrobatics, but given it was also just the dress pants and the jacket left unbuttoned she decided to let that particular thought go.

“What do you mean?” she asked. Sun looked at her and flashed another smile and waved a hand in the air.

“Oh, it’s nothing. I gotta go find Neptune, I’ll chat you up later Blake,” he replied and flipped over the desk and ran out of the classroom. Blake let out a low hum and looked over at Weiss, who shrugged at her, and nodded as she stood up and walked out and around the desk to grab Ruby’s arms.

“Come on Ruby, we need to check something.”

“No, I’m dead!” Ruby cried as Blake pulled her over the desk and dragged her out of the classroom, the smaller girl moaning the whole way.

“All these people jumping and dragging others over desks,” Port said, shaking his head, “back when I was a student, that kind of behavior would have resulted in a blood duel with the teacher! Why I remember one time—”

“Yang, we should get out of here before we get caught in another story,” Weiss said as she shook Yang’s shoulders.

“But I’m dead,” Yang said.

“Oh shut up!”

* * *

Once she had gotten back to her dorm and taken a quick shower, Summer had started to cool off from earlier and started to feel bad about blowing up at Jaune. He didn’t _mean_ to annoy the hell out of her, but he had hit the point where Summer just couldn’t take much more of it. _‘I’ll apologize to him later. Not today though, let him stew on what he did wrong.’_ She nodded at that plan and, once she was more or less dressed decently enough to exit the bathroom, she exited into the main dorm room and was immediately shoved aside by Raven who closed the bathroom door behind her.

“Excuse you!”

“Don’t mind her,” Qrow said from his bed and waved a hand in the air, “She’s mad because I was teasing her about her clothing for today.”

“That’s… really brave of you Qrow,” Summer said as she moved to her closet to get socks and her casual jacket.

“Trust me, you’ll do the same when you see what she picked,” Taiyang said as he finished slipping his shoes on and punched his palm, “So what’s the plan for the day?”

“I was going to wait for Velvet to get here before we start on that,” Summer replied as she Blinked up to her bed and started putting on her socks. She got one on before she looked up at Qrow. “And Qrow…”

“I don’t want to hear it!” Qrow said, shooting a glare at Summer.

“Did you do something with your hair?”

“I…what?” Qrow looked at Taiyang, who looked back at him confused, before looking back at Summer. “I… just slicked it back I guess?”

“Huh… it looks good on you.” Summer nodded and went back to her socks, not noticing that Qrow gave Taiyang a smug grin and Taiyang shook his head in response. They didn’t have a chance to dwell on it as someone knocked on the door right then.

“I got it,” Taiyang said and walked over to open the door and step aside to let Velvet inside.

“Hey guys!” she said with a somewhat smug smile and looked up at Summer with her hands clasped behind her back. “See, I have other clothes.”

Summer looked up from her socks to look over Velvet’s clothes. She had switched out her combat clothing for more casual clothing, most noticeably a brown coat that was belted at her waist with a separate shawl buttoned to the top with a hood hanging behind her head. There was a slightly darker top peeking out from under the coat and she had on an armored version of her usual leggings on, the light gray standing out against the black.

When she was finished Summer chuckled. “So you do Velvet. I like your coat.”

“Thanks, Coco helped me pick it out. The hood even has holes for my ears,” Velvet said and lifted the hood over her head to demonstrate as Summer hopped off her bed with her jacket under her arm.

“And the glasses?” Summer asked pointing at the glasses Velvet had on, black frames with a white under rim.

“Just for show,” Velvet said as she poked a finger through the frames to show they were empty. “I figured it would help me stand out less or something. Too much?”

“You do you. It’s not my place to give fashion advice.” Summer slipped her jacket on and zipped it up halfway on her way to grab her boots. “So are you ready for this Vel?”

“As much as I can be,” Velvet answered and lowered her hood, “And just so you know, Coco, Fox, and Yatsuhashi are going to be in town in case they’re needed.”

“Smart, but hopefully we won’t need them. Before we get going let’s do a quick rundown of what we’ll be doing. Vel?”

“Well, like I already told you, the White Fang holds regular faction meetings to recruit members and distribute orders. The recruitment is the important part since any Faunus can get in. I should be able to sneak in and find out what they’re doing.”

“I still don’t like the idea of you going into a Lancer nest like that,” Taiyang said worriedly.

“I can take care of myself.”

“We know you can, but we all would feel better if you at least had someone to at least do overwatch for you. Which is why I’m having Qrow go with you.”

“What?” Qrow asked and sat up.

“I don’t need it, but it would make me feel a little safer I guess,” Velvet reluctantly said and looked back at Qrow.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea Sum? I mean… it’s _me._ ”

“It would either be you or Raven who’s going with Velvet,” Summer answered as she slipped on her last boot and tapped it against the floor, “and who do you trust more with her life?” Qrow thought for a moment before sighing and laying back on his bed.

“Fair enough, and if Raven went with her I’d have to take her job. No offense, but I’d rather take my odds with the Fang.”

“Speaking of, where is Raven?” Velvet’s question was answered when Raven walked out of the bathroom, threw her uniform into a pile of laundry in the corner, and stretched her arms over her head.

“You guys talking about me?” Raven asked, dropped her arms, and looked at everyone in the room before settling on a snickering Velvet. Raven crossed her arms and gave the Faunus a small glare. “What?”

“I’m sorry, I just… didn’t expect to see you wearing something like that.” Velvet was now full on giggling as she pointed at Raven’s clothes. Raven looked down at the yellow sundress she had put on and glared harder at Velvet.

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?” Raven said glancing at Summer, who was holding a fist to her mouth to fail at hiding a smile. This did nothing to temper Raven’s growing anger as she advanced on Velvet, who stopped laughing and started backing away quickly from Raven. “What, just because I’m kind of a tomboy I can’t wear dresses, is that what you’re saying!?”

“Whoa, wait, hold on!” Velvet cried and fell backwards as she tripped on Taiyang’s bed and looked back up at Raven still bearing down on her, “You’re taking that a lot more seriously than I thought you would! I’m sorry, I meant nothing by it!” Raven got to her and Velvet flinched a little as she raised her hand only to give the lightest of slaps to her knee. When Velvet looked back up she mentally kicked herself when she saw Raven’s wide grin.

“I know you are. Come on, it _is_ me, you really think I’d be mad over something stupid like that?” she said and shook her head as Velvet sat back up.

 _‘She’s way too good at the ‘angry bitch’ routine,’_ Velvet thought with a scowl as Raven looked at Summer.

“So, what am I doing?”

“I’m sending you after Junior,” Summer answered and dropped her smile to get back into business mode.

“Nice, I can’t wait,” Raven said and cracked her knuckles. Velvet tilted her head in confusion.

“Um… Junior?” she asked.

“Hei Xiong owns a nightclub in the entertainment district. That’s just his day job though,” Taiyang explained.

“He’s actually one of the biggest information brokers in the Vale underworld,” Raven continued, “he claims to know everything that goes on in the city and I believe him.”

“You dealt with him before to know that?” Velvet asked.

“It’s because of his information that we were so effective in our vigilantism last year,” Summer said and hopped down to the floor. _‘And it’s what got us involved in the Maiden/Salem thing in the first place, but she doesn’t need to know that part.’_ Summer shook that odd feeling away as Velvet stood up from the bed. “We also may have trashed his place pretty bad the last time we were there, so hopefully Junior would remember us. Raven should be enough to make him bend like rubber and get us anything we need.”

“I hope his twin bodyguards are still there. I never got a chance to take a swing at them,” Raven said and chuckled evilly.

“Info first Rae,” Summer chided, “Don’t start a fight unless you have to.” Raven rolled her eyes, but nodded. “We’ll see you all off at the airship pads and meet you in town later. Tai and I have business here.”

“And what would that be?” Velvet asked, with Taiyang responding by dashing over to Summer and wrapping an arm around her.

“We’re gonna make a call!” he said and threw up the horns with his free hand. Velvet looked to Summer for further explanation.

“What doofus here means,” Summer started saying as she pushed Taiyang away from her, “is that we’re going to make a call to the Schnee Dust Company headquarters. They are the company hurting the most from the recent robberies, so maybe they have data we can use to map out a pattern to all of this.”

“And you think they’ll just hand it over?” Velvet asked.

“Businesses always look out for their profits, especially if they’re greedy to a fault,” Qrow explained from where he lay, waving a hand in the air over him, “And rumor has it that that douchebag Jacques Schnee is one of the greediest there is and _hates_ losing profit. They’ll give us what we want if we can promise to put a stop to it as fast as possible.”

 _‘And even then a couple secret codes courtesy of a certain General ought to grease those wheels,’_ Summer thought to herself. “Once we’re done there we’ll go to town to act as backup in case either of you guys need it. Once we’re all done we come back to Beacon, coalesce our information, and move forward from there. Sound good?”

“Yup!” Velvet jumped and turned to the window to stare at a smiling Sun, now in his normal clothes, hanging outside with his tail wrapped around a tree branch.

“When did you get there!?” Velvet screamed as Sun swung into the dorm, flipped neatly over the bookcase to land on his feet, and brushed his shirt off.

“Oh he’s been there for a while,” Summer said and pinched her nose, “I would have said something, but I doubt anything I would say would get him to leave us alone.”

“And you’d be right!” Sun said happily and punched an open palm, “So you guys are finally moving against the Fang again huh? And you were planning on not inviting me?”

“That was the plan,” Raven answered.

“Why, because you ‘don’t want friends to get involved’?”

“…For lack of a better term, yes,” Summer answered. _‘Was he a friend? Maybe, if a persistent hanger-on could be considered one.’_

“That’s dumb, especially since I’m already involved in this remember? You’re not getting rid of me that easily.” Sun waved a hand in the air, his smile barely dropping as he did, and added, “Besides you should always get friends involved when you do stupid stuff. That’s why I brought Neptune along.”

“Wait, what?” Qrow asked and got up to his feet just as Sun jerked a thumb to the window. Qrow walked over and looked outside to find Neptune sidling against the building on one of the ledges outside.

“Hi,” he said as calmly as he could despite his terrified shaking.

“The fuck did you get there?” Qrow asked bemused.

“I got ways ok, now can you _please_ let me in, we’re really high up!”

“…Sure, whatever.” Qrow didn’t care to hear Neptune’s thanks and moved back in to sit on Raven’s bed while Neptune carefully moved to the widow and scrambled inside.

“Great, another piece of dead weight,” Raven muttered as Neptune tripped over the window sill and crashed inside.  She shook her head at him as he got up to his feet with as much grace as he could muster. “What are we going to do with them Sum?” Summer crossed her arms and looked at the newest additions to their little squad and kneaded the fabric of her jacket sleeve in thought. Soon she nodded and smiled as she came to a decision.

“We’ll put them to work, since they want to help so badly,” she said and glanced over at Raven, who smiled to match her own.

“Uh… what work?” Neptune asked leaning around Sun and putting his hand up questioningly, “What did I get dragged into?” Neptune’s question went ignored as Summer pointed at Sun and then Velvet.

“Sun you’ll be helping Velvet and Qrow with infiltrating the Fang meeting.”

“Nice!” Sun grinned widely and rubbed his palms together, “Am I going to need a ninja costume or something?”

“Shut up. As for Neptune…” Summer looked at Neptune, who flashed her a smile with shining teeth, “he can go with Raven since she doesn’t have a partner.”

“WHAT!?” Raven and Neptune shouted at the same time with the former continuing, “Why does he have to go with _me!?”_

“Because you don’t have a partner. And he looks… ok in a fight, I guess.”

Sun wrapped an arm around Neptune’s shoulder, to the latter’s annoyance, and said, “He can hold his own, don’t worry.”

“There, see?”

“Well if that’s the case, why don’t _you_ go with him and I can take Tai to Junior’s,” Raven said pointing at Taiyang, who held up a finger to answer when Summer interrupted.

“Because _I_ don’t want to go with him either!” Summer answered.

“You know I’m standing right-“ Neptune started to say as he shifted away from Sun.

“Shut up!” both girls shouted at him. “Look Summer, I-“ Raven started to say only to be interrupted by Summer.

“Vetoed, you’re going with him, deal with it. Come on Tai,” Summer said and moved to the dorm door, ignoring the frustrated growl from her partner. Taiyang followed with a small ‘yes ma’am’ just as Summer opened the door which caused a girl to give a surprised shriek from the other side. Summer blinked in confusion as she moved around the door to find Ruby and Blake on the floor of the hallway.

“Uh… we can explain,” Blake said as she looked up at Summer.

“Really?” Summer asked flatly as she opened the door more so the others inside the dorm could see the hallway, “and what were you doing?”

“Well… not eavesdropping?” Ruby said while smiling guiltily.

“Oh good, then I don’t have to worry about it. Just like how you won’t have to worry about ending up in front of Ozpin and having your butts booted back to Haven on the off chance you decided to act on something you didn’t hear, yeah?”

“Absolutely, message received!” Blake said giving a thumbs up to Summer.

“Uh… wha?” was Ruby’s response.

“Just go back to your room.” With that Summer lifted her hood over her head and walked down the hallway with Taiyang following behind, the blonde giving an apologetic shrug to both girls as he passed them.

“Well that was fun,” Raven said as she grabbed her sword and slung it over her shoulder, “come on Ransom, we’re going for a walk.” Raven chuckled evilly as she walked out of the dorm room and followed after Summer and Taiyang.

“Well that’s not ominous or anything,” Neptune said and looked at Sun as Qrow and Velvet walked past them out as well.

“Sounds like fun to me. Good luck,” Sun said and slapped Neptune on the shoulder as he dashed out and gave a quick wave to Blake as she and Ruby stood up. Blake returned it along with a second wave as Neptune came out and shut the door behind him.

She watched them until they were all gone and looked over at Ruby, who was crossing her arms and humming to herself. “So… that was suspicious right?”

“Yep,” Ruby answered with a nod.

“And I suppose that means-?”

“I’m gonna call Yang.”

“Figures. Guess that’s why you’re the leader.”

* * *

Summer and Taiyang saw their teams off at the airship pads and waited for their transport to leave before making their way back to the academy and their destination of Beacon Tower. Summer slowed down as she approached the tower and looked up at it, particularly at the glowing ‘beacon’ near the top that lay just above Professor Ozpin’s office. That alone would have made the tower a landmark for all around even without its central role as a CCT tower.

 _‘And then there’s all the other secrets it hides that Ozpin doesn’t advertise,’_ Summer thought shaking her head. Taiyang snapped his fingers in front of her to get her attention and they stopped at the foot of the stairs leading up into the tower itself. “Sorry, I was lost in thought.”

“I noticed,” Taiyang said rolling his eyes, “Why are we coming here instead of the library? We can just as easily make a call there you know.”

“The walls have ears Tai, along with countless more over the air. The tower itself is more centralized in the network and should be harder to trace. Even if it isn’t, the smaller a footprint we can make for Beacon the better.”

“I guess? I’ll just take your word for it, I’m no good with this computer stuff.”

“I know, you still can’t change the desktop background for the PC in our room and I had to explain what cookies were to you.” Summer giggled at how Taiyang blushed at that and walked up the stairs two at a time with him beside her. “Besides, I like coming here. It’s got a majesty all its own along with the history.”

“ _That_ at least I know. It’s still weird to think that there’s a tower even bigger than this one,” Taiyang said tilting his head back to look at the tower.

“Atlas, Beacon, Shade, and Haven in that order of size,” Summer said briefly thinking back to when she had seen the Haven CCT Tower in person nearly a year ago. _‘God it_ has _been a year now. What the hell?’_ “And because of those four towers we have global communications. You can call someone on the other side of Remnant, check the news whenever you want.”

“And watch videos of cats in serious situations,” Taiyang finished half-jokingly.

“Truly we are living in a great age,” Summer agreed with a nod, “and all the more reason it needs to be protected.” Summer opened the wooden doors of the tower and led the way to the elevators, passing several Atlas students milling around the large central pillar. “Now you should let me talk with the SDC. Hopefully the clearance we have with Oz and Ironwood should be enough to get us what we need.”

“And improvise if we don’t?” Taiyang asked and got a nod in response. The elevator doors opened and they entered as some Shade students left. “Fine with me. I think I’ll call my folks while I’m here, see how they’re doing.”

“See if you can get your mom to send more cookies our way.”

“I’ll try my best boss.” The doors closed and the speaker crackled to life.

 _“Welcome to the CCT, how may I help you?”_ the feminine voice of the tower’s A.I. said.

Summer took out her scroll as she said, “We want to go to communications.”

 _“Certainly. Please hold your scrolls up so we can verify your identities.”_ Summer almost rolled her eyes at all these security steps, but they were there for a reason. She took Taiyang’s scroll in the same hand as her own and held them both up to the panel, a series of short beeps filling the air until a final confirmation told Summer she could pull them away. She tossed Taiyang his scroll and he caught it as the A.I. said, _“Perfect! You’ll arrive shortly,”_ and the elevator jolted as it started to rise.

The two rode in silence, Summer stretching her arms over her head before crossing them behind her head, until Taiyang sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Crap, I just remembered I have to tell them about my grades. Fucking exams.”

“I thought you did pretty good this time,” Summer said glancing at her blonde teammate, who sighed loudly.

“That makes one of us.” The elevator dinged and the doors opened onto the communications floor. Summer and Taiyang walked out, the former looking behind her to check what time it would be in Atlas, and over to the reception desk. They only had to wait a moment before a hologram of a woman appeared and mimed typing on a keyboard before looking up at them.

“Welcome to the Beacon Cross Continental Transmit tower, how may I help you?” she said in the voice of the A.I. system.

“I’d like to make a call to the Schnee Dust Company headquarters in Atlas,” Summer said and put her hands into her jacket pockets.

“And I’d like to call the Xiao Long household on Patch,” Taiyang said and sighed again.

“One moment please,” the A.I. said and, after a moment, smiled at them, “We’ll patch Ms. Rose at station 43 and Mr. Xiao Long will be at station 25.”

“Thank you,” Summer said and led the way into the communication floor. Along the way Summer looked around at several others using the floor for its designed purpose, such as a girl also calling her family on Patch and another blonde classmate of hers rubbing the back of his head.

“No, everything is going fine Mom. We just got done with exams and I’m kind of tired.”

“Hey Jaune,” Summer said, giving him a wave as she walked past him.

“Uh, hi Summer!” Jaune said and started to stand up. “Hey, about earlier-“

“Still mad, don’t want to talk.” Jaune stared at Summer as she continued walking, Taiyang giving him a wave as well, and he sat back down with a sad sigh.

_“And who was that? A new girlfriend?”_

“What!? N-no, just an upperclassman here. I kind of made her mad earlier. Enough about that, how’s Dad doing?”

Taiyang separated from Summer to make his own call while Summer sat down at station 43 and took her scroll out as she waited for the connection to be established. She barely had enough time to open it when the screen came to life and showed a woman with short brown hair in a white business suit with the familiar Schnee snowflake behind her.

 _“Thank you for calling the Schnee Dust Company, how may I help you today?”_ She asked.

“Hello, my name is Summer Rose. I’m a Huntress at Beacon Academy and I was hoping you could help me with an investigation I’m doing that involves your company,” Summer said and opened her scroll before putting it into a slot on the console.

_“If it’s within my power to help you I will.”_

“Perfect. I’m transmitting some information to you that will help me bring this to a swift end. Anything you can give me along these lines will be helpful.” Summer hit a key on her console that transferred her list to the woman before moving to her scroll and started going through it. After a moment the woman spoke up again.

_“I’m sorry, but a lot of these documents are classified.”_

_‘And there it is,’_ Summer thought as she pulled up the code she was looking for and tapped it to transmit that as well, _‘Let’s just nip that in the bud.’_

 _“I can give you some of what you asked for, but-“_ she paused as her console beeped and, after a second of reading, her eyes widened and she looked back at Summer. Summer kept her face calm and composed as the woman nodded and said _“One moment.”_ True to her word Summer’s scroll beeped as files were transferred onto it and Summer took it out when it was done. _“Even with your clearance I still can’t give you all you want. Some documents are classified only for company board members, I hope you understand ma’am.”_

“Of course, I’ll just make do with what you have given me. Thank you for your time.”

 _“Happy to be of assistance. And remember, the finest of them all only come from the Schnee Dust Company.”_ With that the screen faded to black as the connection was cut off and Summer let herself smile as she spun her scroll in her hand.

 _‘God I love having connections,’_ she thought as she put her scroll away and stood up, _‘Let’s just hope that I got what I absolutely need from that.’_ After a quick walk she saw Taiyang at his station and decided to make her presence known in her usual way: leaning on him and crossing her arms on his head to rest her head on. “Hey Tai, I’m done with my call.”

“So I can tell,” Taiyang replied flatly.

 _“And there’s Summer!”_ Summer smiled and waved at Taiyang’s mother on the screen, the blonde woman returning it with a smile. _“You’re looking healthier than the last time I saw you. Are you eating well?”_

“I’d hope so since I do most of the cooking here.” That got a laugh out of the woman.

_“I know that feeling. And are Raven and Qrow eating well too? They were too skinny the last time they were here.”_

“Yes they are. I’ve been taking care of all of them and keeping them out of trouble.”

 _“When you’re not leading them there yourself.”_ Summer didn’t try to deny that as she scratched at her cheek. Mrs. Xiao Long didn’t drop the smile at all as she gave Summer a knowing look. _“You’re not planning anything like that are you?”_

“No ma’am, just taking care of some extracurricular projects.”

 _“Oh really, like what happened last year? Well as long as you don’t get my precious boy killed, I won’t have to hunt you down across Remnant and kill_ you _. Does that sound good?”_

“Absolutely ma’am, I wouldn’t have it any other way!” Summer said and gave a thumbs up while Taiyang rolled his eyes.

_“Perfect! Now you said you just got done with your exams today, how did you do?”_

“We won’t know the results for a few days,” Taiyang answered and shook his head, “but don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll somehow find out when I do.”

 _“You’re right about that.”_ A bark sounded to the side and Mrs. Xiao Long turned to look for a moment. _“I hear you, I’ll be right there. I’m sorry but I have to go, it’s time for Zwei’s walk. I’ll let your father know you called and are doing ok.”_

“Can I make a request for cookie rations?” Summer asked and held a finger up.

 _“We’ll see how your grades look before I do that. Take care, you two and let Raven and Qrow know I’m thinking about them.”_ Taiyang and Summer nodded and waved, which Mrs. Xiao Long returned it and leaned offscreen to hang up. When the screen went blank Taiyang shoved Summer off him and turned around to look at her.

“So did you get what you wanted?”

“We’ll have to see. Let’s head to the city.” Taiyang nodded and got up to follow Summer back to the elevators, the two of them once again waving at Jaune as they passed him. On the way down Summer opened her scroll and started scrolling through the files she had gotten while Taiyang looked over her shoulder. “Shipping manifests, some reports on Dust robberies… hm, some of this looks interesting.”

“Useful or just the boring kind?”

“We’ll have to see what the others can come up with. What else do we have here?” The elevator doors opened and the pair walked out with Summer focused on her scroll. She stayed that way all the way out of the tower and down the steps. “Ah fuck biscuits, I don’t think there’s anything here we don’t already know.”

“What else would be new? Are you absolutely sure though?”

“I’ll have to study a bit more, but if I wasted clearance like that for worthless shit I’m going to be very-“ Summer missed a step and overcompensated for the lost balance, throwing her scroll further down the steps. Thankfully Taiyang was quick on the draw as always and grabbed the back of Summer’s jacket to keep her from falling down the steps.

“You ok?” Taiyang asked as Summer got her balance back.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Taiyang let go of Summer’s jacket and she looked around, “where’d my scroll go?”

“Excuse me.” Summer blinked and looked behind her to find none other than Penny Polendina standing there holding her scroll out to her. “I think you dropped this when you almost fell.”

“Oh hey Penny,” Taiyang said with a wave, which caused Penny to stiffen up as her eyes widened. “Small world, you’re staying here now?”

“I… don’t know what you mean,” she answered stiffly while looking around.

“Forget that, where have you been? It’s been weeks since I last saw you! I was starting to think those guys in that car kidnapped you!”

“You’re mistaken. We’ve never met before,” Penny flat out lied and hiccupped right after. She looked at Summer, then at Taiyang, and shoved Summer’s scroll into her hands and quickly walked away with a quick “I have to go.”

“Well, that was weird,” Taiyang said, crossing his arms.

“Yeah, even for her that was weird,” Summer agreed and put her scroll away before pointing at Taiyang, “head to the city and wait to see if the others need you. I’ll be there in a bit.”

Without waiting for a response Summer chased after Penny, leaving Taiyang to shrug and wander off to the air pads while muttering things like “Sure, not like I have anything important to do.” It didn’t take long for Summer to catch up as she jumped down a set of stairs to land next to Penny.

“Now hold up!” Summer shouted. Penny slowed down for a moment and looked back at Summer, “the least you could do is tell me where you’ve been the last few weeks Penny.”

“I’m afraid you’re mistaken. We’ve never met,” Penny said and hiccupped again before continuing down the stairs. Summer scowled at the red head and walked a little so she had a clear line to Blink down the next flight of stairs and face Penny again.

“Come on, at least _try_ and come up with better bullshit! You’re still wearing my cloak on your arm!” Penny stopped with her eyes wide and grabbed at the piece of white cloth tied around her arm that Summer pointed at with a guilty look. “Look Penny, I don’t know if you really don’t want to talk to me or if you were _told_ not to talk to me, but I really don’t care about that. What happened at the docks that night is _so much_ bigger than you can imagine. If I’m going to nail the guys behind it I’m going to need your help, even if it’s just you telling your side of the story.” Penny bit her lip while Summer was talking and started looking around the plaza warily before leaning in close to Summer.

 _“It’s not safe to talk here,”_ Penny whispered quickly, _“meet me in one hour at Vale Promenade. We can talk then.”_ Penny pulled away and started walking even faster, leaving Summer to stare after her with a quirked eyebrow.

“First Vel with her glasses and now Penny. Why is everybody acting like we’re in a fucking spy movie?” Summer wondered and crossed her arms. “Well whatever, it’s not like I have much to do for the next few hours. Better get my stuff from my room.”

* * *

Penny arrived at the promenade an hour later to meet with Summer. She had managed to lose her escorts again like always and looked up and down the street she was waiting on while tapping her fingers against the can in her hands. _‘Is she going to come or did I chase her off with how I acted earlier? I hope not,’_ were just some of the thoughts going through Penny’s head, at least until a ringing shattered them. Penny looked around in a panic as she realized it was her scroll and she quickly pulled it out and answered it. “H-hello, Penny speaking!”

 _“Hi Penny,”_ Summer said on the other end, which caused Penny to relax, _“I hope you realize the Promenade is about 10 blocks. I’m going to need a little more to go on if I want to find you.”_ Penny stared into blank space for a second before pressing the back of her hand against her forehead because _of course_ Summer would need to know that.

“I’m sorry Summer. I’m…” Penny drifted off as she looked at a nearby street sign, “at the corner of 42nd and Argent.”

 _“I’ll be there soon.”_ The line went dead and Penny put her scroll away to go back to awkwardly waiting for Summer to arrive. She only waited a few more minutes before she was tapped on the shoulder and she turned around startled to see Summer standing there, her sword behind her waist and her dagger on her belt.

“Easy there Penny, it’s just me,” Summer said, putting her hand back in her jacket pocket. Penny nodded and turned to face Summer as she looked around and added, “and I have to thank you again for taking the time to meet me.”

“Anything for a friend,” Penny said with a bright smile before she held the can out to Summer, “Oh, and I got a drink for you too!” Summer blinked and took the can from her, looking over the black can with a red ‘G’ in claw marks on it, and looked back at Penny.

“Well, thanks Penny, but I don’t really drink Grimm all that much.”

“O-oh,” Penny said deflating a little, “I’m sorry, I-“ Penny was interrupted by the hiss of Summer opening the can and taking a quick drink. Summer noticed the way Penny was staring at her and shrugged.

“What? You _did_ go through the trouble of getting it for me. Let’s talk and walk.” Summer pointed down the road and started walking, stopping for a moment before looking back in time to see Penny smile and dash next to her with a smile before they both started walking. “So why don’t we start with what you know about the dock fight. How’d you end up there?”

“I was completely honest about how I got there. I saw an explosion and went to help. The fact that you and the others were there is just coincidence.”

“Weirder things have happened. What about Torchwick and the Fang?”

“Other than what’s publicly known about the White Fang, I don’t know anything about them. I’ve never even heard of Torchwick before the docks.”

“That’s quite the coincidence, all things considered,” Summer said as she took another drink and shook her head. “And the black car and your complete absence for the past few weeks?”

“Well… you were right. I was told not to talk to you or Coco… anyone really. Oh, but I’m not in trouble with anyone, that’s how it was even before I met you all.”

“Fuck, really? I heard Atlas Academy was a lot more strict than Beacon, but to flat out keep a student from interacting with _anyone_ during the Vytal Festival? That seems excessive even for Ironwood, or is that more your dad doing that?”

“Oh no! Don’t get the wrong idea, my father is really sweet.” The pair stopped at an intersection and Summer took a moment to shake her half empty can, “He just worries about me, especially when I… get hurt.” Penny punctuated that by rubbing the white cloth around her arm.

“That makes sense. That’s the primary job for dads: worrying about their little girls.”

“He says that a lot too. Is your father like that too?” Summer barely kept the hurt in her heart hidden. Penny didn’t mean to drag up those kinds of memories so innocently and certainly wouldn’t if she did know.

“He… was. He passed away ten years ago,” Summer answered truthfully, sorrow just barely on her voice. Times like this made it feel like she was carrying a ton on her shoulders, especially with the look Penny gave her.

“O-oh, he’s… oh my gosh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to… I’m sorry,” she said before looking away and crossing her arms.

“It’s fine, you didn’t know,” Summer assured Penny and put a hand on her shoulder, causing the red head to look back at Summer as she gave her a sad smile. “It’s been long enough that the pain… well, it’s not gone, but it’s certainly dulled.” Summer took her hand off Penny and finished the rest of her drink in one swig. She threw the empty can into a nearby trash can and resumed their walk toward a plaza with a reasonably sized crowd. “So that black car was your handlers, I take it?”

“Something like that. They work for Mr. Ironwood.”

“Why is Ironwood so interested in you?” Summer’s question was met only with Penny biting her lip before a round of applause distracted the both of them. They looked at the plaza where a hologram of none other than General Ironwood was giving a presentation on Atlas Mechs. “Well speak of the devil.”

 _“Now everyone, you all know the Atlesian Knights 130, our line of humanoid combatant mechs,”_ Ironwood said as he gestured at the line-up of black mechs behind him, which all bowed slightly. The black transport boxes behind them started to open as Ironwood continued. _“And they have performed their duties well. But for Atlas,_ well _isn’t good enough. So today, I would like to introduce the latest in our line of personal defense mechs: the Atlesian Knight 200!”_

By then the boxes had fully opened and the new model of Knight, a smooth body of metal painted white with a head similar to the current armor of Atlesian combat troops with a black face, stepped out and onto the 130s before making a triumphant pose. The crowd oohed and applauded while Summer gave a small hum of appreciation and crossed her arms.

 _“Stronger, sleeker, and admittedly, a little less scary.”_ Summer rolled her eyes as the mechs started performing ‘friendly’ gestures: flexing muscles, finger guns, and other gestures that reminded Summer too much of early Taiyang. _“These models will become active and ready later this year.”_

“Why does everything have to be white nowadays?” Summer wondered idly and looked at Penny, “I actually like the older model of scrolls which were black. The new ones are more powerful, but you can’t even ask for them in a different color anymore!”

“I… wouldn’t know about that,” Penny answered quietly and pressed her index fingers together as she stared at the AKs.

 _“Now that’s not all we have to show today,”_ Ironwood continued, _“It’s been a long standing goal for Atlas to remove people from the dangers of the battlefield, but we know that there are still jobs that require a_ human _touch. So, with the cooperation of the Schnee Dust Company, today I’m proud to introduce the Atlesian Paladin!”_ The crowd oohed again as Ironwood was replaced with a much larger hologram of said Paladin, with Summer herself giving a low whistle of appreciation. The Paladin looked clunky and the hologram was probably a bit smaller than the real life version, but it still gave off the awe that Ironwood probably wanted to instill.

 _“Now unfortunately these are still in the prototype stages, so we don’t have any to show you today, but you can expect these fine machines to be ready to protect Remnant in the coming years,”_ Ironwood finished amid another round of applause.

“That’s a shame,” Summer said with a shake of her head, “I’d like to have seen what the pilot seat looks like.”

“Summer, we should go,” Penny said, unnerved for some reason.

“Sure, I don’t want to hear Ironwood go off about…” Summer trailed off when she saw two Atlas soldiers looking at them with their fingers on their helmet before they started walking to them. She looked at Penny as she started to slowly back away, they’re eyes meeting quickly, and nodded. “Run.”

The two girls did just that with Penny leading the way into a nearby alley. She took the corner tightly while Summer ran along the walls and jumped further in, taking a moment to look back and see the soldier’s running after them. She stumbled a little on landing and waved at Penny to keep going when she slowed just a little. Penny nodded and kept running while Summer Blinked to close the distance, looking to see the soldiers just now turn the corner of the alley.

 _‘Damn, we won’t get far like this!’_ Summer thought and looked at Penny still up ahead, _‘I don’t know_ why _she’s running from them, but I’m sure she’ll explain when she gets away.’_ Summer took a breath and started focusing, flower petals coming off her jacket as she ran. “Penny, hold up!” she shouted as she picked up speed. Penny looked back confused, but slowed down nonetheless.

“What is it?” she asked as Summer caught up and wrapped her arms around her, “If we don’t hurry, they’ll catch up and-“ Penny’s sentence turned to a scream and then joyful laughter when she suddenly went flying through the air with Summer in a burst of flower petals. They flew over a few buildings before they started to descend and saw they wouldn’t quite clear the last one.

“Oh shit!” Summer shouted and tried to maneuver her body to shield Penny, but only partly succeeded as both of their legs clipped the edge of the roof, both of their Auras flaring up in response, and sent the two of them spinning down and crashing into the road. Summer slammed against the asphalt, thankful that her Aura held up against the impact, and heard loud honking of a truck’s horn rapidly approaching. She was still dazed and hoped it would stop in time or maybe Penny would recover faster and pull her out of the way.

Instead, she saw something damn near impossible when Penny stood up and held her hands out to the truck, _caught it_ , and held it back successfully. Her feet dug into the road, only pushing her back a few inches toward Summer, and the truck itself was lifted a few feet off the ground before crashing back onto the ground. Summer looked at Old Man Shopkeep in the driver’s seat and his surprise almost matched her own.

“Are you ok?” Penny asked backing away from the truck slightly to look at Shopkeep, who nodded while shaking from the shock.

“What in the fuck?” Penny looked back at Summer staring wide-eyed at her and noticed a crowd starting to form in the streets around her. She clenched her hands tightly as she watched them talk among themselves and take pictures with their scrolls, every single one of them weighing heavily on Penny. Then she felt a hand grab her wrist and looked at Summer, looking very serious. “This way.”

Penny hardly resisted as Summer pulled her away from the scene and down another alley. They ran only far enough for Summer to charge another Blink up to the rooftop, where she grabbed the ledge and flipped onto the roof while tossing Penny on as well. Penny barely moved to land on her feet, her mind still on what happened on the street and especially her hands that she was now desperately trying to hide against her body.

“Penny, what was that?” Penny looked back at Summer’s question and tensed at how she looked. This wasn’t the girl who would straight face lie and send her on a fool’s errand for her safety or gently comfort her when she was worried. She was all business, her eyes almost as sharp as General Ironwood’s and more than likely just as intolerant of disobedience right now.

“That was nothing,” Penny answered and hiccupped, “everything is fine! *hic* I don’t need help! *hic*”

“Wrong, no it's not, and yes you do,” Summer answered and tried to move to see Penny’s face only for the girl to turn away from her. “Listen Penny, what you did back there is beyond anything I’ve seen. Taiyang is one of the strongest guys I know. I’ve seen him lift a Goliath Tusk like it was nothing, but even _he_ would buckle under getting hit by a truck. I told you that any secrets you have are your own and whether or not you share them is your choice and I meant that, but I _can’t_ ignore that.” Penny fidgeted with her hand and took the smallest steps possible as she paced before turning back to Summer, worry and fear etched into her face.

“We’re… friends, right? And if I say keep it a secret, will you?”

“Of course, I’m good at keeping secrets. More than any one person should if I’m being perfectly frank.” That seemed to do its job since Penny closed her eyes, took a breath, and turned to face Summer before reaching out to show her hands. Penny didn’t come out of her encounter with the truck unscathed as her palms were torn to shreds and, much like how her arm looked at the docks, showed a silvery metal underneath artificial skin. She moved her fingers slightly which caused bits of her metal palms to move along with them. “Penny, what-?”

“I’m not a normal girl, and my arms aren’t prosthetic,” Penny clarified and grabbed her arm covered by Summer’s cloak scrap. “My arms-my whole body-have always been metal because I was _created_ , not _born._ ” Summer blinked and, out of curiosity, leaned closer to Penny. The proximity let Summer focus better on Penny’s pupils as they narrowed like a camera’s lens and jerked back in surprise.

“Holy shit! That… would certainly explain a lot.”

“Indeed. I am the world’s first synthetic being capable of projecting Aura.” Penny gripped her arm tightly and clenched her free hand into a fist as she looked down sadly. “I’m not real, not like you.” Summer tilted her head as she stared at Penny. The girl was really taking that little bit hard, and Summer didn’t even have to really think about her next course of action.

“Well I disagree.” Penny blinked and looked up at Summer, still very serious but less tense in how she stood. “You proved yourself wrong just now after all.”

“I… did?”

“What is Aura? I’m sure you know the answer to that right?”

“But... I don’t-“

“Answer the question.”

“Well, Aura is the outward manifestation of the soul, primarily used to defend against harm.”

“My point exactly. Aura is a part of the soul; no soul, no Aura. You’re not like those AKs.” Penny stared at Summer as she grabbed one of Penny’s hands, running one of her thumbs over the metal of Penny’s palms before moving it up and pressing it against her cheek. “Honestly, that’s all I need. Metal or flesh, circuits or blood, if you have a soul then you’re real, no matter what others may say. Hell, I’d say you’re more human than most _actual_ humans I know.”

Penny was surprised, stunned even, at just how fast Summer accepted everything she had told her. “I… but… you’re taking this revelation remarkably well Summer.” Penny was surprised again when Summer simply laughed and let go of her.

“Like I said Penny, I’m good at keeping secrets. You would be shocked at just how many ‘big revelations’ I know. You’re practically nothing compared to any number of other things.” Summer crossed her arms and looked up at the distant silhouette of Beacon Academy, her thoughts drifting off for all of a second before Penny pulled her into another crushing hug against her chest.

“Oh Summer! You’re such a good friend! I should have known better than to think you’d think less of me because of what I am! If I could cry tears of joy, I would!” Penny shouted and swung Summer back and forth while grinning from ear to ear. After a moment Summer started rapidly poking Penny in the side and she looked down to see Summer turning blue again. She quickly let go and backed away as Summer coughed roughly.

“I’m so sorry!” She said before quietly adding to herself, “ _I really have to stop doing that._ ”

“It’s fine,” Summer said as she coughed again and waved her hand. After a moment she straightened, took a deep breath, and nodded. “I almost feel sorry for you dad if you hug him like that too.”

“Only once!” Summer blinked at Penny’s rather sudden answer and deflated a little under Summer’s stare. “Twice…”

“Penny-“

“Ok, three times, but that’s it!”

“Penny, I was joking. I’m sure your father doesn’t mind your hugs.” _‘My god this girl.’_

“Oh, he doesn’t. He’s really sweet.” Penny bounced on her feet and smiled as she put her hands together, “he’s the one who built me after all. You’d love him!”

“I’m sure I would. He must be a genius if he built you all by himself.”

“Well, not just by himself. He had some help from Mr. Ironwood.”

“ _General_ Ironwood?” Summer’s face fell flat as she came to a realization and rubbed her eyes, “Wait, then does that mean those soldiers we’ve been dodging…”

“They like to protect me too. And they keep me from wandering off to places I shouldn’t go.”

“They’re really bad at their jobs if you manage to get away from them chasing cats.”

“…Yes, I suppose so.” Penny scratched her cheek looking guilty before shaking her head, “but that’s not their fault. I was told that, one day, I’d have to save the world. But I still have a lot to learn, which is why I’ve come here to participate in the Vytal Tournament: to learn all I can.”

“Pfft, what is it with old men thrusting the fate of the world onto the shoulders of teenage girls?” Summer muttered and crossed her arms. Despite her misgivings it did make sense and seemed like a very ‘Ironwood’ way to do things. _‘And it’s not like she’s being mistreated or anything. Restricted and overly protected maybe, but not mistreated.’_ Still as Summer looked Penny over once again, silently happy that she was happy again, there was still one more thing she had to make sure about. _‘The uninvited guest…’_

“Well Penny, since you’re being open and honest about all this, there’s one last thing I need to ask you about.” Penny tilted her head, but said nothing as Summer rubbed her chin. “That Creature of Grimm that attacked us at the docks, you seemed to recognize it.” Penny’s eyes widened and she stiffened up. _‘Nailed it.’_

“I… it was just a Creature of Grimm. A tough one, but nothing more,” Penny answered and hiccupped, which only further Summer’s suspicions.

“Then why was it a ‘primary target’? And why would you expect it to be tough to fight and still have it exceed them?” Summer narrowed her gaze, which Penny tried to desperately avoid. “You’re hiding something.”

“…I’m sorry Summer, but that’s classified. I really can’t tell you.”

 _‘Bullseye. Well Penny, let’s make sure I’m right. Nothing wrong with the occasional shot in the dark.’_ With that Summer closed her eyes and took a deep breath. _‘And if I’m wrong, I’m in for a total shit storm back home.’_

“Death, Moon, Hierophant, and Strength. Four Creatures of Grimm that came into being during the Great War and have been a threat to humanity ever since.” Summer opened her eyes to see Penny staring back at her in shock and continued. “They’re fast, strong, and most dangerously of all intelligent and able to command other Grimm like soldiers. They all look like young women and are collectively known as-“

“The Generals of Grimm,” Penny finished and then shouted, “You know about the Generals!?” Summer quickly clamped her hand on Penny’s mouth and held a finger to her own lips.

“Quiet! Don’t just shout that kind of thing out loud!” Even if she was sure there was no one listening, it was better to be safe than sorry. Penny nodded and Summer took her hand away and crossed her arms again. “And yeah, I know about them. My whole team has known about them since the beginning of the school year.”

“But if you know… then that means you’re working with Mr. Ironwood to stop them?”

“Something like that, but I get my orders from Professor Ozpin, not Ironwood. How do you fit into all of this then?”

“The elimination of the Generals of Grimm are one of my primary directives.” Penny looked down as she clasped her hands together, her gaze focused and serious. “It’s just as you said, the Generals are a threat to our way of life as we know it, and if they aren’t stopped they’ll lead us all into an even worse war than what we’ve left behind.” Then she looked up at Summer and smiled as she moved her hands behind her back. “But thanks to you and everyone else the Hierophant has fallen! And it shouldn’t be longer before the rest have too right?”

“We can only hope.” Summer uncrossed her arms and held a hand up to her mouth as she chuckled, “I gotta say, it’s reassuring to know I have you as an ally in the fight against Queen.”

“Queen? What’s a Queen?” Penny asked, which stopped Summer’s laughter and had her eyes widen a little.

 _‘She knows about the Generals but not Salem? Ironwood must be playing his cards a little closer to his chest than Ozpin.’_ Stowing that line of thought away, Summer shook her head and said, “Never mind that Penny, I was just rambling.”

“You were? But it sounded-“

“Penny, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, then it’s not worth knowing. Got it?” The two girls stared at each other for a moment until Penny nodded.

“Yes, I understand. It’s probably nothing right?” Summer nodded in response and was silently glad to have put out _that_ fire without incident.

“Where the hell did she go!?” Summer and Penny looked to the side of the building they were on and Summer held a finger to her lips. Penny nodded and they snuck to the edge of the rooftop and looked down into the alley to see the two soldiers standing and looking around.

“Looks like your escorts are here. You better go with them.”

“Yes I should,” Penny nodded and showed her palms again, “I need to get the damage fixed too.” They stood up and Penny pulled Summer into a quick hug before pulling away. “Thanks for helping me Summer, but I feel a little bad. If you need my help with anything, don’t hesitate to ask. Would that be sufficient repayment?”

“Friendship isn’t about give and take Penny. Besides I don’t think there’s anything you could do to help me right now, unless you can somehow get Vale’s Dust Shipment data from the SDC.”

“Done.” Summer was taken aback by Penny’s abrupt statement and even more so when she gave a curt salute before rushing to the opposite side of the rooftop.

“Wait Penny, I was being sarcastic!” Summer tried to shout after her to no avail as Penny jumped off the roof. Summer huffed to herself before going back to spying on the soldiers in the alley.

“Ah shit, the General is going to kill us if we can’t find her!” the one with blue clothing said grabbing at his helmet.

“I can’t take another demotion,” the other in red added. They were so overcome with their despair that they didn’t notice Penny casually walk around the corner at the far end of the alley until she called out to them.

“Salutations Officers!” The two immediately perked up and dashed over to Penny and started looking her over.

“Penny! What were you thinking running from us like that!?” Red asked with all the angry concern of a grade school teacher.

“What happened to that girl you were with?” Blue asked.

“What girl? I’ve been alone all day.”

 _‘Thank you for not snitching,’_ Summer thought with a quick eye roll when Penny hiccupped without outwardly showing it.

“And what did we say about causing a scene out in the city?” Red added putting his hands on his hips, “It’s pure luck that no one was hurt in that truck accident. Were you?”

“No, just a scratch,” Penny answered and showed the palms of her hands.

 _‘Just a scratch she says. That kind of injury would cause irreversible muscle damage if she actually had them.’_ Summer’s assessment proved to be thinking a bit further ahead than the two soldiers, who simply lamented that Penny’s father ‘wouldn’t be happy’ to hear about this. Soon enough they were walking away with Penny. Blue tapped the side of his helmet to make a call and were out of Summer’s line of sight.

Summer sighed and turned to sit with her back against the roof. “That girl’s going to be the death of me. I hope she doesn’t do something stupid.” With not much else to do at the moment, Summer opened her jacket a little and reached into one of the inner pockets to pull out a small white box and a metal flick lighter, shaking the former to gauge its contents. “Now do I really want to waste my monthly smoke on Penny’s welfare?” she wondered to herself before just as quickly nodding. “Yes, yes I do. I should find a smoking room first.”


	9. Information gathering part 2

Neptune didn’t have a lot of expectations when he got off the transport and went with Raven on her ‘walk’. She seemed like a very hostile person in general, something that his gaffe the other day didn’t help with to his own admission, and every time he tried to start a conversation all he got was a glare in response. Still that hostility had it’s good points as long as _he_ wasn’t the focus of it.

“This. Will. Teach. You. To. Mug. ME!” Raven shouted while bashing some poor thug’s head into a vending machine, the rest of his group already unconscious on the sidewalk surrounding them. After a few more bashes she grabbed his head with both hands and smashed it in as hard as she could, shattering the glass and knocking him out. Raven let him go and watched him crumple to the ground. Raven then reached into the machine and took out a candy bar before looking down at her latest victim.

“Thanks for the free snack asshole,” she said and spat on him before looking at Neptune, leaning against a wall nearby and pointed at him with her candy. “And thank _you_ for the help.”

“You had it handled, I’d just get in the way,” Neptune said holding his hands up and getting off the wall while Raven opened the candy.

“Well you can make up for it by getting their wallets for me. Chop chop.” Neptune rolled his eyes and went about the task, quickly digging through all the would-be mugger’s pockets for their wallets and handing them to Raven.

“Isn’t taking their money… illegal or something?” Neptune asked as she took all the Lien out of them. When she was done, all the cards in one hand and the wallets in the other, she took the candy out and shook her head.

“So is mugging people, I consider this karmic balancing. The weak making the strong stronger,” she explained as she threw the empty wallets at a guy slumped unconscious against a wall. “Get fucked.”

“Weren’t we supposed to be going somewhere?”

“Keep your belt on Ransom, we’re almost there.” Neptune growled at the nickname, but still followed Raven as she led the way while also putting the money into a pouch on her scabbard. They had entered the entertainment district about half an hour ago and had spent the time since slowly walking through the district. ‘Building tension,’ as Raven put it, though Neptune was sure she just wanted to start trouble with anyone willing to entertain her.

Not that he was dumb enough to actually say it out loud.

“So… this friend of yours, what’s he like?” Neptune asked once Raven had finished her candy and thrown the wrapper into a can they passed by.

“He’s not a ‘friend’, just a guy we happen to know. As for what he’s like, if you’ve seen one small time gang boss you’ve seen them all. I’ll give him this though, he’s more pragmatic than most of his contemporaries; if he can get through the day with a few more Lien and no bloodshed then it’s a good day for him, or at least that’s how I read him.”

“Sounds like a… great guy.” The pair rounded a corner and approached a particularly large building with a techno beat echoing faintly from it, only barely covering up the occasional engine of vehicles on the nearby street. “Is that the place?”

“Yup, that’s his club.” Raven stopped and turned to Neptune as he stopped next to her and crossed her arms. “Now listen up Ransom, here’s how this is going to work. We’re going to go in there, I’m going to do all the talking, and you’re not going to open your goddamn mouth. If things go smoothly we’ll get our info from Junior and leave with no fuss from anyone.”

“And if it _doesn’t_ go smoothly?”

“A fight will probably start, we’ll hurt or kill a bunch of his men, break Junior’s legs, steal the data from his computer, and then set the club on fire leaving him and his men to die.” Neptune’s wide eye shock contrasted well with Raven’s deadpan stare, until she smirked and started laughing and smacked Neptune’s arm. “I’m just kidding… mostly. We trashed this place and wrecked Junior’s shit pretty well the last time we were here, so if he’s smart and recognizes me he won’t want to start anything. Like I said, Junior’s pragmatic.”

“Heh, you really got me there,” Neptune said and laughed nervously before swallowing and pointing at the club. “So uh… wanna get started?”

“The sooner the better. And remember, zip it.” Neptune gave a thumbs up and started following Raven for about two steps before the loud roar of an engine filled the air and they looked back in time to see a yellow motorcycle round the corner and zoom up to them. It stopped a few feet past them in a stoppie and turned around completely to face them. The rider turned the bike off and leaned forward to get a better look at them, Neptune focusing more on her somewhat classy tan and black outfit while Raven saw her long blonde hair and immediately knew who it was.

“Hey cutie,” Yang said with a large grin, “you’re looking good tonight.”

“Same to you,” Neptune said pointing and flashing a smile at Yang.

“I wasn’t talking to you.”

“They never are,” Neptune said without even flinching at the tinge of annoyance in her voice, simply sighing and shaking his head.

“The hell are you doing here?” Raven asked, crossing her arms as Yang got off the bike and took off her helmet and sunglasses, setting both on the bike before leaning against it.

“What, a girl can’t go clubbing if she wants to? A friend of mine gave this one rave reviews, so here I am. But enough about the club, _you’re_ looking great in that dress Rae-Rae. You should wear yellow more often.”

“Shut up. Get out. Don’t ever call me that again,” Raven said narrowing her eyes and putting a hand on her sheath, her irritation only growing as Yang’s grin widened.

“Why should I Rae-Rae? You gonna string someone up? I love doing that too! I’ll join you.”

_“NO!”_

“Why not let her come along?” Neptune said leaning between the girls.

“Shut up Ransom, you’re not part of this.”

“Uh, yes I am!” Neptune shifted to stand up straight and pointed at the club. “We’re about to walk into a club that, by your own admission, is filled with gangsters! She can fight too, so why not have her along?”

“Because she pisses me off.”

“I’m not leaving either way Rae-Rae.” Raven glared at Yang and then at Neptune for a moment before shaking her head and sighing as she turned around.

“Just both of you shut the fuck up and let me do my thing,” she said as she walked toward the club. Neptune and Yang shared a look, the latter shrugging, and they both followed after Raven at a slow pace. The techno music grew louder the closer they got to the door and stopped at it when Raven tried to open the door only to find it was locked. “Oh you’re joking me,” she muttered and pounded on the door, the wood echoing loudly from the force, and a small slit in the door opened slightly.

“The club is closed for renovations, sorry for the inconvenience,” a man with a deep voice said on the other side.

“Well good thing I’m not here for the club. I want to talk to Junior,” Raven said, crossing her arms.

“And where did you hear that-oh shit!” “ The man started to say as he opened the slit more to look outside and stumbled a little when he saw Raven. He looked behind him and back at Raven, who couldn’t help but smirk at the horror on his face and absolutely sure his eyes were wide under his red sunglasses. He then said mechanically, “There is no Junior here, you should go away,” and shut the slit. Raven chuckled as heavy footsteps echoed behind it and looked back at her companions.

“Ha, that’s cute. They remember me and they think a door will stop me.” Raven unsheathed her sword and slashed it across the door before giving a kick to the lower half to send it flying inside. She twirled her sword lightly before ducking under the remains of the door to go inside, growling lightly as she did.

“Oh, she’s violent,” Yang said shifting a little on her feet, “I like that!”

“That’s too much for me,” Neptune said putting his hands in his pockets, “I don’t like crazy girls.”

“I do. I love it when they fight back.” Yang giggled as she followed Raven into the club with Neptune right behind her. They had to jog to catch up with Raven while a couple of Junior’s men ran ahead of them to a thick metal door, the techno music getting louder for the split second it opened.

“Oh shit! She’s coming, close the door!” one of them shouted as they did that just as Raven got to the door.

“Dammit!” Raven cursed and punched the door, “the main club is right there! If we take the long way Junior would probably be gone by the time we-“

“Please, allow me,” Yang interrupted as she pulled Raven away from the door. “In times like this, you just have to know the universal secret knock,” she added with a wink to Raven as she interlocked her fingers and cracked them. Then she unfolded Ember Celica and took a step toward the door and, with a long wind up, punched the seams of the doors with an explosion of flame. Then she stuck her hands into the newly formed hole and pried them open before backing away before bowing slightly to Raven and motioning with her arm. “After you, milady.”

“Shut it.” Yang only grinned wider as Raven walked through the smoke into the club and followed after her into the smoke and stuttering music. By this point everyone in the club was mobilizing and rushing to the entrance with Junior’s twin bodyguards, though they all slowed and stopped when they saw Raven. “Try something, I dare you,” Raven said to them, getting glares in return, and looked at the crowd of suits as they trained an array of pistols at her and Yang.

“So… these are your friends?” Neptune asked, leaning around Raven at the many guns.

“Not my friends, remember? And will someone turn off that damn music!” Raven’s demand was met quickly by the bear headed DJ, who just as quickly slunk back under his turntable. “Thank you. Junior, get your ass out here now or there will be blood on your dance floor!” Raven then pointed her sword at a man in the crowd, “Starting with you because your mustache pisses me off!”

The man backed up nervously until a gruff voice shouted, “Everyone calm down! Nobody shoot.” The owner of the voice, a 6 foot mountain of a man in a business suit missing only the jacket, pushed through the crowd and stopped short when he saw Raven and nervously rubbed his neck. “Ah hell, that’s what that was. _Why_ are you here?”

“To ask you some questions,” Raven answered and moved to point her sword just under his chin, causing him to gulp, “and for the trouble you put me through getting in here, you can add a free drink to that. Move, Xiong.” ‘Junior’ sighed and waved at his men to lower their guns.

“All of you get back to work, I’ll handle this,” he said and waited for his men to start walking away to different parts of the club before looking back at Raven. “We’ll talk at the bar. And put the music back on! Something quiet!” Junior turned to walk down the steps to the club’s dance floor while Raven took a moment to sheathe her sword before following with a giggling Yang right behind her.

“Ok, that was cool. Still really scary and not worth it though,” Neptune said to himself before looking at the red and white clad twins near him and waved. “Sup?”

“We don’t talk to trash,” the one in white said.

“Or ransoms waiting to happen. Let’s go Melanie,” the red one added before turning to walk down the stairs.

“After you Miltia.” Neptune stared at the twins in shock and clenched a fist in momentary anger before shaking his head and following.

 _‘Just stop for tonight Neptune, you’re not helping,’_ he thought and ran a hand through his hair, _‘my hair’s not_ that _bad!’_ By now the DJ had gotten some music going again, a soft beat that echoed through the club, and Junior moved behind the bar while Raven sat on one of the bar stools with Yang standing next to her. Melanie and Miltia stood off to the side to keep an eye on the proceedings. Junior leaned against the bar in front of Raven, his face schooled into a controlled, neutral expression.

“So, what are you here for?” Junior asked.

“Mistralian ale, no ice, in a _clean_ glass,” Raven said and checked her fingernails, which earned a groan from Junior as he pushed off the bar and walked to a set of bottles behind him.

“And I’ll have a-“ Yang started to say.

“Don’t give her anything that’s alcoholic,” Raven interrupted.

“WHAT!? Why not? I-“ Yang stopped when Raven put a finger on her lips and smirked.

“The best part about being an upperclassman is telling you all what to do. And I just decided the hardest thing you’ll be having here is milk.” Yang scowled at Raven while the twins laughed behind her.

“Fine, I’ll just have water,” she said after a moment with a roll of her eyes and a shrug before looking behind her and pointing at the twins, “and one of _you_ can get it for me.” The twins stopped laughing and met Yang’s gaze for a moment before Melanie rolled her eyes and got up with a small ‘Whatever,’ before going back behind the bar.

“Here,” Junior said as he returned with two glasses. He set one in front of Raven before taking a drink from his own. Raven sloshed her drink around for a moment as Junior finished and gestured at her with his glass. “So why are you _really_ here?”

“I want to know everything you know about Roman Torchwick and what he’s been doing lately,” Raven answered and took the smallest sip of her drink.

“Ugh, Torchwick.”

“Pain in the ass,” Miltia commented shaking her head.

“No love lost I take it?” Yang asked as Melanie set her glass of water on the bar in front of her.

“Something like that,” Junior said shaking his head, “Business with him was good while it lasted, but… well, let’s just say that I’m glad to be rid of him.”

“Funny, you seemed pretty buddy buddy the last time I was here,” Raven said looking down into her glass, “No honor among thieves, am I right?”

“You rock the boat, you get tossed off,” Melanie said crossing her arms, “and Torchwick has been doing a lot of rocking lately.”

“I couldn’t have put it better myself,” Junior agreed and took another drink.

“So you wouldn’t mind telling me what he’s been up to then?”

“If I knew what he was doing, which I don’t.”

“Bullshit!” Raven shouted and pounded a fist on the bar, though it didn’t have the effect she wanted as Junior finished his drink in one gulp and slammed the glass on the bar while massaging his forehead.

“You can threaten me all you want, it won’t change anything. I can’t tell you what I don’t know!”

“But you’re supposed to ‘know everything’ right?”

“Guess what, even I have limits! I haven’t seen or spoken to him in months!”

“Ah, but you _have_ talked to him.” Both Raven and Junior ignored Yang’s teasing ‘ooh’ as the latter rubbed his eyes. “So, what did you talk about?”

“Business. He had a job to do and needed some extra muscle. He paid up front, took some of my men, and they never came back.”

“So what happened to them?” Neptune asked, finally making his presence known and only got blank looks from everyone.

“…The fuck kind of dumbass question is that?” Miltia asked.

“They never came back,” Melanie finished.

“Where did you get this guy?” Junior asked, pointing at him.

“Who knows? 5000 Lien and you can have him for whatever you want,” Raven offered.

“No deal. I don’t take loss investments.”

“Screw you!” Neptune protested with wide arms, “I’m easily worth twice that amount!”

“Barely,” Yang said with a smile.

“…You all suck.”

“So that was a couple months ago. What about the last time? What was he here for then?” Raven asked, taking another drink.

“Same thing: hired my boys and paid up front for it. _That_ time they actually did come back with some Lien, Lien I never got to see thanks to you guys trashing my club.”

“Glad to be an inconvenience to you. What was the job?”

“I didn’t ask both times he came here. I still haven’t heard from any of my boys that went the second time. Probably arrested or offed by Torchwick for incompetence, WHICH I CAN UNDERSTAND!” The shout somehow managed to echo through the club and Raven shook her head at the shallow attempt of power.

“So you really don’t know anything about what Torchwick is doing or planning?”

“I told you everything I know, and to be perfectly honest I don’t want or care to know what he’s doing. He may be the biggest fish in the Vale pond right now, but getting mixed up in the White Fang is bad for business. _That_ is one lot I want nothing to do with.”

“Crazy cultists,” Melanie said.

“Moronic terrorists,” Miltia added.

 _‘And for once, I agree,’_ Raven said and downed the rest of her glass in one gulp and slammed it down in front of Junior. “We’re done here, but if I get even the slightest hint that you lied to me about this, I’ll be back. Let’s go Ransom.” Raven hopped off the stool and adjusted both her dress and sword as she walked away with Neptune shuffling after her with his hands in his pockets. Yang pushed away from the bar and snapped her fingers at Junior, leaving her untouched glass of water behind as she jogged after Raven.

“So did we get what we needed?” Neptune asked.

“Depends. That second job has to be the robbery that Summer stopped at the beginning of the school year. Whether everything else he said will be useful will depend on what the others find.”

“Ooh, conspiracies! Mind letting me in on this?” Yang asked.

“No, and you’re heading back to Beacon now.”

“Uh huh, we’ll see about that. I actually like this club, I think I’ll come back sometime.” _‘Maybe spill some actual blood. Either way it looks like Ruby was on point about this. I wonder what these ‘others’ are doing?’_

* * *

“So… is it always like this?” Sun asked as he gestured at Qrow wrapping up a scuffle with another too big for their britches mugger.

“Unfortunately yes,” Velvet said with a sigh, “we even had a pool about this last year. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the dock thing was the _one_ time that this didn’t happen with any of them.”

“Well _that_ got made up for in the end didn’t it.” Sun and Velvet quietly watched as Qrow dragged the unconscious mugger by his leg to a nearby manhole. “So who won that pool?”

“Still ongoing.” Qrow lifted the manhole and dumped the thug into it before letting it fall back into place and rejoining Velvet and Sun. “You done playing with your friend?”

“Yes, and thank you _so_ much for helping,” Qrow said dripping with sarcasm.

“You were handling yourself pretty well,” Sun said, which got an eye roll from Qrow before Velvet snapped her fingers between the two to get their attention.

“If we can guys, can we get this show on the road?” She asked and started to walk away, “We’ll miss the meeting if we dally any longer.” The boys shared a look and followed her as she walked down the streets. The meeting place Velvet managed to pick up was in a familiar place for Qrow: the warehouse storage district that Summer and Taiyang had checked out not that long ago. Qrow massaged and rolled a shoulder as a prickly feeling stung at the memory. That went away when Qrow’s scroll beeped and he pulled it out to check his messages.

“Ok, Summer and Tai are in town now. Sum is following a lead of her own and Tai is on standby,” Qrow said and put his scroll away.

“What lead is she following?” Velvet asked.

“Hell if I know, she didn’t say. Just ‘a lead’.”

“Interesting. Well, if it helps it helps right? With Tai and my team we shouldn’t have too much trouble if we need backup right?”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“Speaking of, what’s the plan again?” Sun asked as the group took a corner to a grouping of warehouses.

“We’ll be going into the meeting as ‘new recruits’ to scope things out there,” Velvet answered and glanced at Qrow, “but you can’t really do that can you? Um…”

“I’ll find my own way in,” Qrow responded and waved a hand in the air, “and it’s probably for the best that I don’t stick too close to you in any case.”

“What does that mean?” Sun asked.

“Don’t bother,” Velvet answered waving a hand in the air, “it’s some weird superstition that they have. I’ve learned to just roll with it by now.” Sun noticed the look that Qrow shot Velvet but didn’t say anything about it, instead stretching his arms over his head with a yawn.

“Well whatever, this is going to be good!” Sun chuckled and punched his palm, “I can’t wait to lay the smack down on those-“

“Shh!” The boys stopped when Velvet shushed them and she pointed at a nearby wall. She took a step closer and ran three fingers along a claw marking made of chalk. She rubbed her fingers together and took a step to look around the corner to see a group of Faunus at the door of a warehouse, one a door guard of some kind, and gave them two masks before letting them in. “Found it. This is where we part ways Qrow.”

“I’ll see you inside,” Qrow said with a nod and took off jogging in the opposite direction, stopping for a second to look back at Velvet lifting her hood over her head and Sun buttoning up his shirt before turning the corner and jumping up to the roof. He carefully walked up to see the warehouse he needed to get into and rubbed his chin in thought as Velvet and Sun made their way to the entrance. “I say that, but what am I going to do? Front door is out, so…” Qrow muttered as his eyes drifted up to the ventilation system on the roof and shrugged, “that’ll do.”

Qrow moved out of sight, transformed, and took flight. He passed over the opening in the warehouses long enough to see Velvet and Sun get in without a hitch and landed next to one of the vents. He tilted his head at the grate and transformed back to link his fingers through the grate and attempt to pull it off, succeeding with barely any effort. “Gotta love cheap ass architecture,” Qrow muttered with a small laugh and set the grate aside. He leaned down to get a better look into the vent, far too small for him to get through at the moment, and transformed so he could walk through it. The soft patter of the metal under his talons along with the chill of the ventilation made Qrow ruffle his feathers a little.

“I don’t get it.” Qrow looked down at the sound of Sun’s voice and saw him and Velvet through a grate, the former holding up a gray mask. “If you think what you’re doing is right, why hide who you are?”

“It’s supposed to be symbolic or something,” Velvet answered holding up her own mask, “Something like, ‘Humanity labeled us as monsters so we take the guise of monsters’ or some other garbage. In truth, they’re all cowards who don’t want their faces plastered all over the internet. Some of them do have day jobs after all.” Velvet said that last bit with a bit more melancholy than needed and rubbed her thumb against the mask.

“I get that, but isn’t this a bit twisted? I mean… Grimm masks?”

“From what I understand the guy who started it was the same way. A _real_ psycho.” Velvet took off her glasses and put the mask on before stashing the glasses in a pocket and walking down the hallway.

“Why does everyone have to make vague, ominous statements?” Sun wondered aloud before putting on his own mask and following Velvet.

 _‘Tell me about it,’_ Qrow agreed and continued on his own walk through the vent. He soon came at an intersection with one brance blocked off by a grate and another by a lazily rotating fan. Qrow went down the one free path and soon found himself at another grate overlooking the main warehouse floor. Inside, just as Velvet predicted, was a whole host of White Fang soldiers all dolled up in their uniforms, most on the ground floor while a few were on the catwalks. To the right side was a crowd of Faunus out of uniform that Velvet and Sun were making their way through. At the far back in front of a red tapestry with the White Fang sigil was a muscular White Fang soldier.

“Thank you all for coming, both new and old,” he said loud enough for his voice to echo through the room, “while Brother Adam was expected to join us tonight, business elsewhere requires his attention.”

 _“Who’s Adam?”_ Sun whispered to Velvet next to him.

 _“Probably some big name in the Fang,”_ Velvet responded with a small shake of her head, _“but if he’s not here, he’s not a problem. He’s probably nothing to worry about in any case anyway.”_

“Tonight however, we have another to see you. A comrade of the cause and important business partner,” the man continued as he made grandiose gestures. From behind the tapestry came none other than Roman Torchwick, who’s presence almost immediately caused an uproar among the crowd that he ate up.

 _‘Well look who it is, the man of the month himself,’_ Qrow thought as Roman waved his arms and thanked the crowd as if he wasn’t one bad word away from getting lynched. Qrow tilted his head to get a look at the grate separating him from the room and grabbed it in his beak before he started to work it out of place.

“Thank you, thank you, quite the lovely audience we have tonight!” Roman finished in a tone that would have made Qrow roll his eyes if he could. And that crowd continued to protest.

“What’s a human doing here!?” A Faunus woman with deer antlers shouted.

“Glad you asked Deery!” Roman said as the roar of the crowd only grew louder. When it didn’t die down after a moment Roman dropped the false cheer and looked at the muscular soldier who rolled his neck.

“SHUT UP!” He yelled and stomped his foot, both loud enough to silence the dissent of the crowd with the closest ones recoiling away from him. Once they were silent he nodded at Roman and crossed his arms.

“Good that you know when to follow orders and quiet down. If you hadn’t, I’d have to kill one of you to set an example. _You_ specifically.” Roman said and pointed at a soldier with a duck bill, who opened her arms in offense. “And on that note, it really goes to show just how bad Humans can be! But despite that I still feel there’s a… ‘kinship’ I guess with all of you. _I’m_ not the one who put you in this situation you’re all in. The organizations responsible for laws are.”

 _“So is he going somewhere with this, or is he just monologuing?”_ Sun asked in a whisper as Roman continued.

 _“Raven was right, these people just love the sound of their voices,”_ Velvet said with a shake of her head.

 _“Tell me about it.”_ Sun and Velvet turned to look at a Faunus next to them idly scratching at some skin in the middle of being shed. He looked at them and flinched under their stares. _“What?”_

 _“Butt out of our conversation!”_ Sun replied, shaking his fist a little at him.

_“But I was just-!”_

_“Butt out!”_

_“…Fine, whatever.”_

“The police, the military, even the schools. They are all responsible for the lot in life you’ve all been forced into!” That bit managed to get some applause from the crowd which Roman let go long enough to rest his cane in the crook of his elbow and light up a cigar. He took a drag as the applause died down enough for him to continue. “Now you’re all here for the same reason I am: underdogs like cheering on other underdogs. Having said that, let me do more than just ‘cheer you on’.”

Roman snapped his fingers and Neo appeared from behind the tapestry and, along with the muscular lieutenant, ripped the tapestry off where it was tied up on the rafters to reveal a blocky, gunmetal gray mech about four meters tall that got a roar out of the crowd. Velvet had to jump a little to get a better look at the mech and barely saw the red insignia on the side.

 _“That is a big robot,”_ Sun commented.

 _“I’ve never seen anything like that! Where did he get it?”_ Velvet asked, her wide eyes barely visible through the mask.

“This beauty,” Roman called over the crowd and tapped the mech’s leg with his cane, “is the latest prototype battle mech from the Kingdom of Atlas, and thanks to my connections I was able to snag a few off the assembly line. Now some of you may have heard rumblings of a new operation in the southeast, which is still getting set up and where this baby will be going.

“Now, if you want to stay here in the city and cause whatever havoc you can here, then go right ahead. But if you _really_ want to get back at the people you hate so much, then this one mech is just a taste of what I can give you. The rest… is at our new joint.”

 _‘Thanks for blabbing you whole plan like a moron,’_ Qrow thought as he pushed against the grate and was rewarded with a small tear of metal that was covered up by the crowd cheering and letting it go leave it hanging from a hinge. _‘Bingo!’_ he thought as he flew out of the vent and onto the rafters.

“What was that?” one of the guards on overwatch asked looking up.

“It was just a bird. Relax ok?” another replied shaking her head at him.

“But how did it get in?”

“Are you seriously asking that? Idiot.” Qrow once again lamented the fact he couldn’t roll his eyes like this as the crowd died down again.

“Will all new recruits please step forward!” the lieutenant called out and the crowd of recruits started to move forward, save for Sun and Velvet.

 _“This is bad, we have to leave,”_ Velvet said as Faunus pushed past her.

“ _But wouldn’t leaving the way we came in be a little suspicious?”_ Sun asked and took a step back regardless.

 _“Well yeah, but what else can we do?”_ Velvet looked around a bit more before looking at Roman, who had moved over to Neo and started scanning the crowd before landing on Velvet with wide eyes.

 _“He sees us, and I think he remembers us,”_ Sun said nervously as Roman scowled and threw his cigar away.

_“Yup.”_

_‘Ah hell. Guess I better bail them out,’_ Qrow thought as he looked around until he saw a power box on the wall and then at a soldier casually leaning against a railing and took off toward him. _‘You’ll do.’_

“Hey, you two!” Roman yelled out only to be immediately drowned out by another yell.

“What the fu- AAAAAH!” Roman looked up in time to see a soldier flying toward him. They both crashed to the ground and caused a small panic to spread through the crowd.

“Sorry boys,” Qrow shouted as he hopped onto the railing and aimed Harbinger at the power box, “it’s lights out!” He fired and the lights went out and chaos exploded in the dark.

“What’s going on!?”

“How’d a Human get in?”

“Go for the windows!”

“Stop them!”

A window was shattered by Qrow who tumbled outside followed by Velvet and Sun. The two Faunus threw their masks away as they took off running away from the warehouse. “Well that could have gone better!” Qrow shouted and sheathed his weapon behind him.

“No kidding! Just run!” Velvet shouted back.

“Well at least we got away scot-free right?” Sun asked in time for the wall of the warehouse to break apart as the mech ran out and after them. “Oh fuck off!”

“Of course that happens!” Qrow shouted and drew his weapon again, “you two go ahead and call backup, I’ll hold him off.”

“Are you sure?” Sun asked.

“Just run!” Velvet shouted and dodged Qrow as he turned around and dashed toward the mech. She leapt onto a nearby rooftop with Sun and looked back long enough to see Qrow’s attack get blocked easily by the mech and get slapped away down an alley. “Saw that coming,” Velvet said with a roll of her eyes as the mech continued chasing them. They saw a chance to jump onto the rooftops with the mech chasing from the streets. Velvet shook her head at that and pulled out her Scroll and shouted, “Call Summer’s team, I’ll call mine!”

“R-right, on it!” Sun returned as he took out his own scroll.

* * *

In a not so nearby arcade, the rest of Team CFVY were crowded around a crane game with Fox tapping a finger on his arm as he stood in front of it.

 _“I was nowhere close was I?”_ Fox asked telepathically.

“Eh, you were close,” Coco said gently.

“It slipped out of the claw,” Yatsuhashi added.

 _“Damn. Alright, I got a good feeling this time. I can get it.”_ Fox rolled a shoulder and started feeling for the coin slot of the crane game again.

“As fun as this is, I’m starting to get worried about Velvet.”

“Don’t worry Yats, I’m sure she’ll call-“ Coco’s sentence was cut off by her Scroll’s ringtone. She took it out, flicked it open, and quirked an eyebrow at the picture of Velvet. “And look who it is. Good timing.” She answered the call and turned the speaker on. “You’re on speaker Vel.”

_“That’s great, but I’m kind of in a situation right now. I need some-“_

_“HEEEEEEEEEEELP!”_ Coco and Yatsuhashi flinched at Sun’s sudden scream, though Fox only sighed from where he was crouched.

_“I was so close too.”_

* * *

_“We got made at that rally and now we’re being chased by a robot or something! It’s really big! Qrow tried to fight it and got slapped! I think he’s ok though.”_

_“Of course you did,”_ Taiyang answered through the scroll, _“Well, no helping that now I guess. I’ll wait on your mark Rae.”_

“Goddammit, I can’t even have a smoke without shit going down,” Summer complained as she turned on an app to track Sun’s scroll and took one last drag of her cigarette before stubbing it out in the ashtray. She breathed out a stream of smoke and rushed out of the smoking room to follow Sun’s signal. _‘Nice while it lasted though. Back to work.’_

* * *

_“That Torchwick guy is in it I think! But… not like it ate him or anything. It’s like he’s controlling it or something!”_

Raven rolled her eyes at that and said, “Yeah jackass, that’s what piloting a mech is.” She looked over at Neptune and Yang, the former worried and the latter smirking on her motorcycle with a scroll to her ear and shook her head. “Where are you guys going?”

_“We’re going to try and get on the highway, but this dude is right on our tail! We’re at exit 72 going… East?”_

_“WEST!”_ Velvet’s voice screamed from the scroll.

_“West, right, I meant that!”_

“That’s all I need. Don’t die before I get there.” Raven snapped her scroll shut and put it away in a pouch on her scabbard.

Yang put away her scroll and asked, “So what’s the plan now?” and got a finger in her face for her trouble.

“You go back to Beacon!” Raven said and pointed at Neptune, “and you do whatever. Just stay out of my way!” Raven then ran past them across the street and into an alley where she disappeared behind a building.

“What?” Neptune asked aloud holding his arms out, “Sun’s in trouble and she wants me to just leave? Screw that!”

“Agreed,” Yang said as she strapped her helmet on and tapped the seat behind her, “hop on and buckle up!”

“But it’s… oh whatever!” Neptune lowered his goggles and got on the motorcycle. He barely got his grip on the seat when Yang gunned the motorcycle and took off down the street in a brief wheelie. They were long gone by the time a raven flew over the buildings and toward the highway. It wasn’t far enough to be a lengthy flight and she was soon over the highway. Soon she picked out the distant caws of a crow and angled her flight over to fly alongside it.

“Hello brother,” Raven said once she settled next to Qrow, her voice filled with amusement, “slapped by a mech huh?”

“Not. A. Word,” Qrow growled out.

“I’ll tease you later then. You see where the idiots went?”

“They were still on the streets when I lost them. They should show up again soon.” The pair dove down and spotted Velvet and Sun as they jumped onto a pair of cars as they drove down the highway. Not long after the Paladin jumped up as well and gave chase, forcing the birds to ascend to stay out of sight of both of them.

“Shit, I was expecting one of those stupid AKs! Did you get a good read on it when you got slapped?”

“Ha ha, and no I didn’t. It’s Atlas made though, so it’s probably both tough and heavily armed. We’ll need to force it off the highway before taking it down!”

“Good luck with that.”

Down on the highway Sun and Velvet were hopping from car to car to stay ahead of the Paladin, not that it cared for those cars as it either knocked them out of the way or just plowed into them like a bunch of toys. They settled on a box truck and Velvet started scrolling through her pictures while Sun scowled at the mech.

“Oh come on, what did we do to piss him off so much!?” Sun shouted.

“I don’t know, why don’t you go ask him and stall for time?” Velvet asked sarcastically before settling on a picture and putting her camera away.

“Yeah, not gonna happen. I have a fear of becoming roadkill.”

Not far behind them was Yang and Neptune quickly gaining on the chase, dodging between cars that had both escaped the mech’s wrath and the ones that hadn’t. Once they had settled more or less in a straight line Neptune patted Yang’s back. “If you can hold it steady I can get some shots off,” he yelled over the wind.

“Sure, go ahead,” Yang shouted back and added as Neptune started reaching for his weapon, “but don’t singe my hair. You do, and your face will meet the pavement.” Neptune swallowed nervously and drew his rifle, the weapon unfolding and humming as it charged up, and fired a shot at the Paladin. It hit squarely in the back and a couple bolts of electricity jumped across the surface, though other than that it seemed to do little other than make it jerk forward. The Paladin picked up speed and slammed a fist into the back end of a car, causing it to spin out and into the bike’s path.

“Get ready to jump!” Yang said and ignored Neptune’s scared ‘What!?’ as she gunned it for the car and popped a wheelie just before hitting it, launching off the hood of the car into the air. With barely any time to think, Neptune unfolded his rifle into its full form and jumped off the bike toward the Paladin. Yang landed and watched as Neptune stabbed his glaive into the Paladin, electricity arcing off the tip and onto the metal of the mech. Though attempting to overload the systems of the mech did little more than make the HUD inside the cockpit flicker, it was enough to distract Roman from Velvet and Sun while Neptune held on for dear life.

“Eh, no better time than now to try this,” Velvet muttered and made a hand motion to materialize a set of hard-light swords hanging behind her. When they were finished forming she looked back at Sun. “Cover me! If we can get him out of that we can end this quickly!”

“Right,” Sun nodded before shouting, “Hold on buddy, we’re coming for you!”

“Take your time!” Neptune called back while trying his best not to get thrown off the mech. Sun took a breath and clasped his hands together as he let off a yellow glow, followed by two yellow clones running away from him and past Velvet. She waited for the first one to jump off the truck before taking her own running jump. The clones kicked the Paladin and disappeared in yellow flashes before Velvet landed and stabbed the replica swords into the mech, one going a little too close to Neptune for his liking. “Hey watch it!”

“Quit whining!” Velvet shouted and made a gesture to withdraw the swords. She grabbed one of them out of the air and stabbed it into the body of the Paladin, the very tip of which actually made it into the cockpit.

“Ok, too close for comfort,” Roman muttered to himself and pressed a few buttons, “let’s take care of that.” When he hit the last button the top of the Paladin started spinning around quickly just as Sun leapt toward it. The rotation caused Neptune to crash into Sun and dislodge from the mech. In the few moments they were in the air Sun flailed his hand and grabbed Velvet’s hood, who felt the tug just a moment before she was flying along with them through the air screaming. The swords disappeared as they went sailing off the highway and Yang let out a soft sigh along with the two birds above the highway.

“Dumbasses. I hope the girls are in place,” Yang muttered and focused on the Paladin.

“Figures. Well, they tried their best I guess.” Qrow said high above the action.

“Too bad it wasn’t good enough,” Raven added, shaking her head, “but whatever, we’ll finish the job. At the very least Yang is keeping him moving, so we just need to-“

“Wait, what’s that?”

* * *

_“He’s coming your way. Hope you girls are ready.”_

_“Ready!”_

_“Ready. On your go Weiss.”_

Weiss took a deep breath, tightened her grip on her rapier, and once again cursed Ruby in her mind. It had been a little jarring when she was suddenly told to get changed and armed before heading to Vale and only now is she realizing why. Nevertheless, when she was done with her breathing, she flipped off the overpass she was on onto the highway and drew her weapon. Cars sped past her as she stared down the… surprisingly big mech charging at her. _Much_ bigger than she thought.

 _‘Calm down Weiss, you can do this. Get your Dust ready.’_ The last car sped past her as her weapon’s Dust cylinder clicked into place. _‘Wait for the right moment.’_ The only thing in front of her now was the mech. _‘And strike!’_ Weiss did a spin and stabbed into the ground and a sheet of ice spread across the surface of the road the moment the mech reached her. It slipped on the ice and went sliding past her, upon which she switched to Fire Dust and melted the ice before it could cause an unwanted accident. Once the ice was gone she stood up and saw Yang coming at her with her arm held out and instinctively held out her own that was caught by Yang and swung onto the bike.

“Nice work Ice Queen, handled like a pro!” Yang shouted as they followed after the mech as it crashed off the highway.

“Don’t call me that!” Weiss yelled back just as they came to a stop next to the break in the highway. Weiss hopped off while Yang turned off the bike and ran after her, the two of them jumping off a second after the two shadowy blurs of their teammates and landing at the bottom in front of the mech as it started getting back up.

 _“Now that wasn’t very nice!”_ Roman’s voice echoed out through the speaker and turned to look at the girls, his eyes narrowing when he saw Ruby and Yang. “Them again? Why are…?” he muttered to himself and shook his head, “No, it doesn’t matter. ‘Don’t break cover’ and all that.” Roman barely took a step toward them when he lurched down suddenly and heard metal tearing into metal. Qrow flipped down in front of him and fired a few shots as Roman checked the top camera in time to see Raven fall and stab the camera out. She dragged the sword across the top to leave gouge in the robot before jumping off to join Qrow.

She had barely landed when she quickly slashed her sword on either side of her, which each opened a portal. Summer and Taiyang leapt out and stumbled a little on seeing the Paladin, though they quickly regained their footing. “A Paladin? What is that doing here?”

“That was so cool!” Ruby shouted and pointed at Summer, even when she turned to look at them and narrowed her eyes at them.

“And what the fuck are _you_ doing here!?”

“Focus!” Qrow shouted and snapped Harbinger shut and held it in front of him. Summer growled and shook her head before pointing at RWBY.

“I’ll kick all your asses later,” she said, drew York and Soleil, and lowered into a combat stance with everyone else doing the same.

 _“Well hello there Squirt!”_ Roman said jovially, which got an eye roll from Summer, _“We really have got to stop meeting like this.”_

“I couldn’t agree more,” Summer muttered as she glanced at RWBY and gestured at them, “Can you do your fog thing?”

“Fog… thing?” Weiss asked, tilting her head.

“Oh,” Yang perked up and pointed a finger between her and Weiss, “ _our_ thing.”

“Oh. Yeah, we can do that,” Weiss answered with a nod only to be met with a blank stare from Summer.

“THEN DO IT!” she finally shouted after a few seconds.

“Oh! You were- ok.”

 _“Alright, I’ve waited enough. Now it’s time to-“_ Roman stopped when Yang jumped into the air and Weiss created a large sheet of ice while the others quickly scattered around the field. _“Wha..?”_ Then Yang shot down and punched the ice, almost instantly filling the area with a thick fog. “Of course. Well, no big deal, that’s what infrared is for.” Roman flipped a switch to activate an array of sensors along the outside of the Paladin as he started slowly walking through the fog.

_“We have to take out its sensors and reduce its mobility.”_

_“We can do that.”_

Roman looked carefully around the fog, the sensors sometimes picking up someone in the fog before they disappeared.

_“Any weapons it has would be a huge problem.”_

_“Leave that to us!”_

_“Stop touching me.”_

Roman stopped and looked around carefully, taking the time to arm some of the weapons before the fight started proper.

 _“What about the asshole_ in _the mech?”_

_“Let’s worry about immediate threats first. Roman will fall easily enough. Now get to it.”_

_“Got it boss.”_

On a whim, Roman charged the Paladin’s laser cannons and fired it along the ground in front of him. The blasts split the fog in front of him in time for a flash of red to shoot toward him. With a shout Ruby smashed into the Paladin scythe first and landed two follow-up slashes that did little more than scratch the armor. She brought her scythe up in time to block a punch from the mech that sent her flying back before landing and skidding on her feet.

“Checkmate!” Ruby shouted and moved slightly so Weiss and Blake could easily dart past her before running to the side. Blake reached it first and started slashing at one of the legs while Weiss focused on the other, the two’s sustained attack managing to push the mech back enough for Weiss to leap and stab out one of the camera’s on the mech. Weiss then created a glyph and jumped off it away from the mech while Blake dashed backwards and started backflipping as the Paladin tried to shoot after her.

The mech lurched suddenly to the side, causing one of the cannons to go askew enough to land a lucky hit on Weiss that sent her flying, and Roman checked a camera in time to see Qrow take his sword out of a leg’s hydraulics and Taiyang to punch the camera out. Roman rolled his eyes and flicked a switch that dropped a bomb at the mech’s feet, forcing the boys into a quick retreat that was assisted by Ruby grabbing the both of them in a storm of rose petals before the bomb blew up.

With that taken care of Roman turned his attention back to Blake, who had just settled back on her feet, and pressed a button to fire every missile he had at her. He barely saw Weiss fire a beam at Blake before she hit the ground that formed a glyph at her feet and activated. In a flash of light the world slowed for Blake and she glanced around to see everything was moving much slower, especially the missiles coming at her. She readjusted her grip on Gambol Shroud and leapt to the missiles, cleanly cutting through one before kicking off a second to gain some air. She repeated the process several times, slicing through and jumping on missiles as she went until there was only one left. She sheathed Gambol Shroud, grabbed the missile, and threw it down at the Paladin before she continued flipping over it and landed as the dilation glyph wore off.

All the missiles detonated right after, most in the air while others spun out of control into the ground, and the last one hit the Paladin dead on causing the armor to buckle a little and Roman to shout in anger from inside.

“Black Rose: Plant edition!” Summer shouted from somewhere.

“Blake, springboard!” Ruby called right after. Blake looked up in time to see Raven running at her, her posture low, her eyes focused, and her hand on her sheathed sword. Blake rolled onto her back and braced her feet for Raven to jump on and kicked her into the air. Raven drew her sword and slashed the air to open a portal and held her arm out for Summer to grab as she Blinked through it with York ablaze. They span in the air once and Summer threw Raven down at the Paladin, making sure to scrape York against the Plant blade to ignite it. Raven screamed as she flipped and landed on the Paladin, stabbing her sword into the joints of the left arm and disconnected the blade before flipping away.

Once Raven was clear Summer took aim at the blade and fired, breaking the blade and causing vines to shoot out from any crack it could. Summer charged a Blink and focused on the plants, glancing just enough to see Ruby charging as well, and Blinked downward as Ruby jumped. Sword and scythe met at the same time and cleanly sliced the arm off and Ruby landed and continued running as Summer landed and got knocked away by a stomp from the Paladin as it stumbled from the impact.

Roman managed to settle in time to see Taiyang jump up and land a Semblance enhanced kick to the body and flip out of the way of Yang as she latched onto the cockpit. She grinned madly at one of the cameras before punching it into pieces and continuing the assault at whatever she could, the echoes of Ember Celica filling the air as he could. _“I’ve had enough of ants crawling on me!”_ Roman shouted and changed his remaining arm into ‘grab mode’ and grabbed Yang off of him. The blonde started punching the fingers that held her as Roman spun the top of the mech around and open-palm slammed her into a nearby concrete pillar that crumbled under the force and buried Yang.

“Oh shit, she’s fucking dead isn’t she!?” Qrow shouted, panicking and dreading the shitstorm that awaited them when this news got back to Ozpin.

“No, she’s alright.” Qrow looked over at Ruby as she settled next to him with a knowing smirk. She gestured at the pile with her scythe as Yang miraculously dug herself out of the rubble, her arms shaking from how tightly she was clenching her fists. “That’s her Semblance: if she can take a hit, it makes her stronger. And the stronger the hit…” Ruby paused as the Paladin reared its fist back and threw it at Yang, who held a hand up to catch it and barely moved under the force. Her hair caught fire and Yang looked up at the mech, her red eyes boring into the metal, and reared her free fist back to demolish the arm up to the elbow with one blow.

“The stronger she gets,” Ruby finished and looked back at Qrow, taking secret glee at his baffled expression.

“…Neat,” was his only response.

“Corvidae!” Qrow perked up at Summer’s voice and looked at her as she pointed at the Paladin, “The left leg!” Qrow nodded and unfolded Harbinger into its scythe form before charging at the Paladin, building speed into a sprint before jumping and firing behind him to launch into a spin. He reached the leg at the same time as his sister and they both cut into the leg at the same time, flying out of the way as the mech stumbled backward and tore the leg apart. Yang took the opportunity to launch forward and kick the remaining leg out from under it, sending the front crashing down in front of her. She yelled loudly as she grabbed the mech and hit it with a hard uppercut that shattered the entire front of the cockpit and sent its pilot screaming out of it surrounded by shrapnel.

Roman landed hard on the ground, but quickly got to his feet and started brushing off his coat. “I just got this cleaned too,” he muttered and stuck a finger through a new hole, “and I need to get it mended too.” Leaving that aside he looked up at the group moving to surround him and locked eyes with Yang on top of the remains of the Paladin as she reared an arm back and fired a shot at him. He didn’t bother to block it as Neo dropped down in front of him and blocked it with her parasol. As the heat washed over them Neo moved to rest her parasol on her shoulders and Roman continued brushing himself off.

“I was wondering when you’d drop in Neo. Well kids, this has been a fun evening, but it’s time to call it a night. Neo?” Roman barely finished the sentence before Summer aimed and fired at them, their images shattering like glass the instant the bullet hit them. Summer growled and lowered her weapon, shaking her head in irritation.

“I really hate that fucking Ice Cream chick,” Summer muttered as she spun Soleil to turn it back into a dagger and sheathed it.

“Tell me about it,” Qrow agreed, “Goddamn illusions.”

“That could have been worse to be honest. At least the mech is taken care of,” Taiyang said brushing his hands off.

“Could have been better too,” Raven countered and sheathed her sword before looking at Team RWBY. “So what do we do about them?”

“That was so awesome!” Ruby cheered happily as she bounced between her teammates with her scythe kept away from them. “He never knew what hit him! Score one for Team RWBY!”

“Hell yeah! Screw that guy!” Yang cheered and held her fists over her head, “We can handle anything thrown at us!”

“It certainly was an experience,” Weiss agreed and looked over Blake, “Are you ok Blake? That… may have been the first time I used Time Dilation after all.”

“…I could have lived without knowing that, but I’m fine,” Blake responded and sheathed Gambol Shroud and smiled at Weiss. She returned the smile and they both looked at STRQ as they approached and sheathed their weapons. Ruby looked at Summer and smiled as she bounded over to her.

“We work well together! Bet you’re glad we showed up huh?” Ruby said and held a hand up for a high five. Summer looked at it and then back at Ruby, her face blank to a calculated degree, and started raising a hand. Ruby kept the smile up until she saw Summer ball her hand up into a fist, after which it changed into panic as the older girl brought the fist down on top of her head. “OW!” Ruby cried and dropped Crescent Rose as she stumbled back and crouched as she started massaging her head, “What was that for!?”

“WHAT DID I SAY!?” Summer shouted and looked at Weiss, Yang, and Blake in order as they flinched away from her, “What did I tell you all earlier about doing something stupid?”

“Well,” Blake started and pressed her index fingers together, “if you’ll remember, you were talking about us _not_ eavesdropping on you. So technically-“

“Don’t fucking bullshit me, you know _exactly_ what I’m talking about!”

“Hey, what’s the attitude for!?” Yang shouted and stomped a foot down, “You guys would have gotten _mulched_ by that robot if it weren’t for us!”

“We’ve handled worse,” Raven said and crossed her arms, “but that doesn’t explain how you ended up at the club right when _I_ got there.”

“You what!?” Summer added and glared at Yang.

“Hey, _that_ was coincidence,” Yang defended while holding up a finger, “and had nothing to do with what happened here!”

“I’ve heard enough! You four think you’re such hot shit and can ‘handle’ anything,” Summer said, gesturing her air quotes, “well if that’s true, then you can ‘handle’ getting your asses shipped back to Haven!”

“Wait,” Ruby said and looked up at Summer with a look of panic that matched her teammates, “for real?”

“For. Real. This shit is not a game, no matter what you all may think! I’m talking to Ozpin about this the second I get back to Beacon. Speaking of, we need to go home.”

“Wait, no,” Weiss said and took a step back as she shook her head, “No, you can’t do that!”

“Um, yes I can,” Summer returned and pointed at herself and then Weiss, “Second year trumps first year. That’s how the world works, deal with it.” Summer started to walk away until she stopped when Weiss moved in front of her with her rapier drawn and pointed at Summer’s face. Taiyang immediately lowered into a fighting stance while Qrow and Raven grabbed the handles of their weapons.

“I am _not_ going back to that place because of you!” She screamed, her blue eyes boring into Summer’s silver as she grit her teeth, “This is my ONE CHANCE and I won’t have you ruin it!” Unimpressed, Summer simply grabbed the blade of the rapier and leaned just a little closer to Weiss, her Aura flickering at where the rapier would hit her neck.

“Try it Princess, _I dare you_.”

“Stop it!” Blake shouted and moved in between the girls, pushing Weiss away from Summer, the latter letting go of the sword, before holding her hands up. “Can we all just calm down a little?” Weiss stared at her partner before she nodded and started taking deep breaths while Blake looked at Summer. “Look, I get where you’re coming from, but what’s done is done! I can’t stop what happened but… oh, I’m so bad at this.” Blake felt some small relief when Summer motioned at her teammates to stand down, which gave her some time to think. After a moment Blake put her hands together and took a breath.

“Being here… means so much more to us than you could possibly imagine. You’re right that I can’t stop you from reporting us, but still… I’m begging you not to! We’ll do anything, we’ll be good students, we won’t get into trouble again, just please give us another chance!”

Summer crossed her arms, closed her eyes, and sighed as she thought it over. While she was thinking Qrow walked up to her, put his hand to her ear, and whispered, _“Why don’t you cut them some slack? I don’t need to remind you about the trouble_ we _get into on a regular basis, so we’re not ones to talk about being model students.”_ With that done Qrow backed away and Summer sighed and rubbed her eyes before looking at each member of RWBY in turn. After a moment she sighed again and pointed at each of them.

“You owe us _big time_ for doing this. From now until the end of the Vytal Tournament, your asses are ours. You do what we say, when we say, no matter what. Got it?”

“Very reasonable,” Blake said nodding at Summer’s ultimatum and looked back at Weiss. The heiress nodded and sheathed her weapon while Yang nodded and grinned widely while giving double thumbs up. Ruby simply nodded as well from where she was crouched.

“Good. In any case, we all still need to get back to Beacon.” Summer started walking again with her team falling into position behind her as she pulled out her scroll. “I better call Coco and let her know what happened.”

“Well, that was close,” Ruby said as she picked up Crescent Rose and folded it up to put away.

“Too close,” Yang agreed as Blake and Weiss walked to inspect the Paladin. Once they were far enough away Yang moved closer to Ruby and whispered, _“I almost forgot who we were dealing with. If they’re as close to Ozpin as we think, they may have a bit more sway than normal students.”_

 _“That’s true,”_ Ruby whispered back and crossed her arms, _“and they’ll be keeping a closer eye on us more than ever. This may be a blessing in disguise though.”_

 _“Either way, it would probably be better to keep our heads down for now. Let Cinder and her chumps do some leg work for a change.”_ Ruby nodded and Yang started walking away while Ruby turned to wave at Weiss and Blake.

“Hey, we’re going back now! Hurry up or you’ll be left behind!”

“Right, be there in a moment!” Weiss called back and moved to stand next to a very still Blake who was staring at the Paladin. “Blake? Are you ok?” she asked and started reaching to her before she looked at the mech and froze when she saw the telltale red insignia of the White Fang. “The White Fang? What is this doing with their insignia on it?”

“I don’t know,” Blake answered, her voice far more terrified than Weiss had heard. She looked at her partner to find her wide eyed and gripping one of her bandaged arms tightly, the free hand twitching a little. “I don’t know.” Weiss blinked at Blake’s tone and finished putting her hand on Blake’s shoulder.

“It’s probably nothing,” Weiss said as Blake looked at her, “that man was clearly not a Faunus... I think. This is probably just him trying to pin his crimes on them.” Blake blinked a couple of times before slowly nodding in agreement.

“Yeah, you’re right… you’re right.”

“I am.” Weiss squeezed Blake a little tighter before taking her hand off and started turning to follow Ruby and Yang. “Come on Blake, we need to go back now. Let’s let the police handle this.” Blake nodded again and took a couple of steps before stopping.

“Hey… about the White Fang…” Blake started to say.

“Blake, I have a lot of problems in my life,” Weiss interrupted and looked back at Blake. “The White Fang doesn’t even make the top ten. Let’s go home.” With that said Weiss continued walking, leaving Blake just a few steps behind. Blake squeezed her arm again and glanced at the wolf head one last time before jogging after Weiss.

 _‘It’s nothing. It has to be…_ ’ Despite that, her hand didn’t stop trembling that night.

* * *

“Yeah…yeah…ok…” Coco said and tapped her fingers against her arm as she listened to Summer on her scroll. Coco quirked an eyebrow and asked, “Really, are you alright? That’s good. No, they’re alright and… eating now. Ok, I’ll let them know. See you tomorrow.”

“What’s up?” Sun asked with his mouth full of noodles.

“Summer took care of that robot,” Coco answered and put away her scroll, “So everything is pretty much wrapped up now. I’m annoyed I didn’t get to do anything, but whatever.”

“Oh that’s good,” Velvet said with a nod and slammed her empty bowl on the counter, “hey Shopkeep, another bowl here!”

“I’m really glad you guys are paying for her food,” Neptune said as he stared in horror at Velvet as she got a fresh bowl of noodles and started to devour it like a Beowolf.

“You guys are on your own though,” Yatsuhashi said with a smirk.

“Eh that’s fine,” Sun answered waving a hand in the air and turned back to the stand. “I love hanging out with you guys.”


End file.
